Scarlet Embrace
by Forsaken and Darklost
Summary: Robin is saved by a stranger, but the price for his help comes with dark results...Pairings: Mostly Robin/Raven, others will vary. Rated M for heavy violence and gory scenes...so reader beware.
1. Requiem of Blood

Disclaimer: I don't own or claim any rights to Teen Titans. They are the rightful property of Cartoon Network and DC Comics. Rightful, and only claim, is to the plot and the following OCs: Sin.

A/N: Greetings to everyone. Be forewarned that this story may seem to be a Robin/Starfire, BUT IT'S NOT! This fanfic is purely set to be a tribute to Robin/Raven fans, not to mention all you dark fiction lovers. For those of you who don't like this pairing, or dark material, then please stop reading this now and find one more to your liking. For everyone who knows me and have been with me for this one…I must apologize…I've lost my inspiration for this fanfic…and most of my others…but that was then. Now things are different and much has changed for me. Partly due to the Brown Recluse attack I suffered from last Fall…leading to much agonizing pain and near fear of losing my right leg, which was where the attack happened. Things didn't help when we later discovered that I had developed MRSA in my leg from the bites. (Please refer to for more information on MRSA.) Needless to say…I ended up in more pain than I was before; growing to the point I was literally begging to have my leg removed. Thankfully, the pain subsided and my leg started to resemble a normal leg again. It's still not fully recovered, but it's almost there. Also, I have been helping my mother tend to my grandparents, so that has taken up much of my time, nearly killing all my free time. But that, too, is at an end…I won't go into details right now as it's still a painful time for me, but matters have been settled.

During my recovery time, I re-evaluated my work...and I just couldn't think of how to continue it. So…I simply decided to start from scratch. Don't fear, I haven't changed the plot, I merely polished it. And I must say, this new version came out better than what I had previously had in mind for this fanfic. So without further ado…Scarlet Embrace—anew!

--

**Requiem of Blood**

The sun had begun to descend beyond the horizon. With its departure came the changing of the sky, changing the once clear blue sky into twilight. Blending slowly in and out of soft shades of lavender and orange, then even slower, it lighten just ever so slightly to pink.

A moment later...

The twilight sky bled red like the color of blood, as if some mad painter slashed the heavens with a razor in place of a soft brush. The now red sky loomed over everything, bathing all in its pain. It was as if the heavens were weeping for some unforeseen calamity about to happen, like it was giving a warning to anyone who would heed it; fighting inch by crawling inch against the darkness pooling forth over the bleeding sky. Even the sun darkened to a haunting glow as it disappeared to give rule over to the night. The crimson sky continued to change with the departing sun, growing darker and darker until the red sky became black as ink, throwing the city known as Jump City, The City of Tomorrow, into utter darkness. The night did give some hope as the black sky glittered with sparkling stars, fighting to try and illuminate the disturbing darkness. Only moments later did the moon grace the night, a full moon…but it gave no comforting silver light this night. This night the moon showered everything…in crimson.

Then…

A chuckle rolled softly throughout the eerie sky. The chuckle grew darker and focused more clearly on top of a building resting near the city's harbor. Strangely as the chuckle grew deeper, a blanket of shadows poured out of the meek ones already occupying the roof. The darkness swirled up like a spring of black water, raining back down as it reached its limit, bathing more darkness on the building. The next moment it wisped out of existence like smoke against a strong wind.

When the shadows disappeared they left a man standing in the center of the roof, who then walked to the edge of the roof. He gazed up at the night sky with a grin that would put the devil to shame. Soon enough, he brought his eyes down to stare over the calm sea and grinned fiendishly more when he looked upon the small island residing near the harbor.

"It's a beautiful night," said the man before chuckling darkly again. He slowly brought up his hand in a welcoming gesture toward the island. "Do you think the same…Robin?"

Over the sea on top of a T-shaped building resting on the small island, sat the hero to whom that name belonged to. Not in the least bit aware that someone had spoken directly to him. Robin, the Boy Wonder, was too absorbed with admiration for the glittering stars in the dark sky to care even if he did; too completely in awe with their sparkling beauty as they triggered blissful memories for him. But it had been a long time since he was called a boy. No, Robin was no longer a boy. He now is a man, having been so since he turned eighteen.

But that was two years ago. He was twenty now and in that time has grown a few more inches taller. His once lanky body now had more mass to it, but he still retained a slim, agile frame; sporting broad shoulders and a wide, well-developed chest, which gave him a handsome body. To go with his larger body, where once a boyish semi-round face belonged, was now squared out into a strong, firm, more mature one. His crown of spiky hair now rested more naturally on his head, having grown out almost past his shoulders.

Much more had happened than his growth. His skills have sharpened to where he stood on even grounds with the best of martial artists…except for one member of the Bat Family. Having achieved the highest scores in his third year in college (would have been his first year were it not for his 'night' life.) And, he was one year away from officially becoming eligible to join the Justice League…if he wanted to, that is. If that weren't enough change; just earlier today the entire team had voted to alter their team name to just 'The Titans', in respect to their adulthood. One thing didn't change for Robin. That was his costume…he still wore his traditional colors and style, just in a larger size now.

Besides that one thing, so much change had taken place, but Robin could still remember the day he and his friends became a team like it were yesterday. Particularly when he first met…

Out of the doorway came a young redhead. At first glance someone would believe she was a super-model, on account of how beautiful she was. With her curvy shape and voluptuous figure, hair that raced down past her alluring hips like molten silk, and a sensual face that would make a man melt for. But she wasn't just an ordinary beauty; her orange skin and unearthly green eyes revealed her to have alien origins. In fact, she was a princess from the planet Tamaran. Though royal, she was as much a warrior as her people were renowned to be. Her exotic frame was toned with muscles, like the Amazon warriors of Themyscira. Starfire had grown into the perfect vision of womanhood anyone could consider, whether they reside from earth or from Tamaran. To go with her mature body, Starfire had adorned a new costume, a rather risqué one as it showed more of her body than protected it. If anything, it flashed for anyone to see the center of her chest straight down to her belly button. In place of her normal gloves, she now wore armored bracers. Her boots were still the same, traveling still up to her thighs, but the material for them strengthened, as was her main suit.

She looked about as she walked out of the doorway, until she spotted Robin. Smiling brightly, she walked over to him and touched his shoulder.

"Robin, my love. What are you doing up here all alone?" said Starfire curiously.

Robin looked up at her and touched her hand affectionately. "Stargazing…and remembering the first time we met under them."

Starfire smiled softly down at him, reminiscing herself now back to that fateful night. She sat down next to Robin and wrapped her arms around his neck. Robin in return wrapped his left arm around her waist. The two snuggled up close, enjoying the other's warmth. During that time, Robin believed himself to be the luckiest man alive to have a woman like Starfire. What man wouldn't? It was a dream come true for any guy to fall in love with a real princess, an alien hotty princess for that matter. Some would think it couldn't get any better than that, if they were in his shoes.

_But it can get better! When I ask Starfire to marry me, it sure will!_ thought Robin happily, placing his right hand secretly on a pocket that contained his proposal ring.

He had thought long and hard about asking Starfire to marry him. He didn't care that they were still quite young. They both knew they would be together forever, so why not make it official? Another reason, he admitted to himself, was that he wanted to get marry so he could experience having a real family again.

Unfortunately, this wasn't going to be the night he asked her…

_Just one more month until our anniversary, then I'll ask her,_ thought Robin.

Starfire pretended to shiver from the night air, giving Robin an excuse to hug her more. "Why don't we go back inside…and get warmer."

Catching her meaning, Robin leaned his lips close to her ear, and whispered lovingly, "With you here, Star, I never noticed the cold." He then kissed her earlobe and then moved his mouth to kiss her lips.

She leaned into the kiss, already feeling herself melt all over for her earthling lover. Oh, she couldn't wait to get him into their room. So she could show him just how much his kisses did to her. When they stopped kissing, they got up and went back inside, holding each other's hands as they went to Robin's room…never aware of the man who had been watching them.

(Two hours later)

A much older, physically built Cyborg came charging into the common room. Like everyone, he too, had made some changes (or in his case some upgrades) to himself; most notably, his body armor. In place of his slightly bulky armor, he had installed slimmer armor, giving his body a more natural appearance, along with some new hidden arsenal systems.

"Guys! We've got problems…er? Where is everybody?" asked Cyborg upon seeing only Beast Boy in the common room.

The Beast Boy that addressed him was a taller, slightly more built Beast Boy. He still wore his Doom Patrol costume, only now without his gloves and sleeves, exposing solid, strong arms, and in his boots were longer and tighter fitting. "Yo Cyborg! What's the problem? You look like the Brotherhood of Evil just knocked on our door."

"Sadly, you're right," replied Cyborg seriously. "Only they're knocking on a military base's door…and Slade's drones are backing them up!"

"What?! Slade and the Brotherhood of Evil…together! Why would they work together?" wondered Beast Boy bewilderedly.

"That's what we're about to go and find out!" said Cyborg. "Now where's the rest of the team?"

"Do you really have to ask?" replied Beast Boy with a knowing look.

Cyborg groaned loudly to himself. "Fine, I'll get Raven. You go get the couple."

Beast Boy scratched the back of his head bashfully. "Wouldn't it be better if you got them? I mean, I…"

Cyborg abruptly cut him off. "Raven's still pissed at you for calling your relationship off with her!"

"Oh, yeah…forgot that," groaned Beast Boy, looking far from caring.

Cyborg would have snapped the green elf's head off for that look, but unfortunately, they didn't have enough time.

"Just go get Robin and Starfire, now!"

The changeling rolled his eyes and morphed into a hummingbird and zoomed off. Cyborg grimaced to himself about Beast Boy. He didn't believe that his friend understood how much he hurt Raven. The way he acted just now showed he didn't seem to care act all. He couldn't understand what went wrong between the two. They both seemed very happy when they began…but ever since that day Beast Boy took Raven to visit the Doom Patrol, things had gone to hell between the two. The breaking point was when Beast Boy told Raven he wanted to stop seeing her…and walked away without giving her a reason why. The breakup shattered Raven, resulting in near total isolation from everyone. It took Robin a long time to get her to come out; not to mention to keeping the team together after that incident.

Cyborg really wanted to give his green friend a good thrashing…but it would have to wait. He growled and stormed off to get Raven. Right now he had to get the team to the base and stop Slade and the Brotherhood of Evil. There would be time later to readjust Beast Boy's heartless attitude.

He arrived at Raven's door when he saw Robin and Starfire leave their room: fully dressed and ready, but looking at Beast Boy with the same frown he had on. As for Beast Boy, he had just hands stuffed in his pockets and looked completely uninterested for ruining their special time.

Ignoring his sudden urge to cause bodily harm at the changeling, Cyborg knocked on Raven's door. "Raven…I-I'm sorry but we're needed at Jump City's military base…"

The door instantly opened and Raven stepped out…covered completed in a black hood and cloak. "Let's go…"

"Yeah…" agreed Cyborg, and before he could say another word. Raven levitated away from him and joined the others, staying clear away from Beast Boy.

_Damn you, Beast Boy…_ cursed Cyborg mentally, then joined in behind the team.

--

Inside the base's main facility, Monsieur Mallah was aiding Gizmo, who was 'volunteered' by Slade to aid in downloading a crucial file of a blueprint of a secret weapon, or so they were informed by the one-eyed mastermind. Gizmo's team: Mammoth, Seemore, Kyd Wykkyd, and Billy Numerous were with him, being ordered around by Madame Rouge in dispatching the last MP squad.

Madame Rouge glared at the young villains with a contemptible snarl on her lips, and then turned her cold eyes on Mallah. "Why are we using so many unneeded people? I could have gotten this mission done faster on my own!"

The intellectual ape snorted at her. "The Brain wishes to draw out the Titans…as per his agreement with Slade."

This led her to glare at the Drones Slade provided them. They stood in the shadows waiting for orders…but whose orders?

"General Immortus's robotic soldiers would have been a wiser choice…" hissed Madame Rouge.

Mallah shrugged his gigantic shoulders. "I care not about what robots we use. What is important here, Rouge, is getting Slade as an ally."

"Why do we need such a man?" asked Madame Rouge coldly. "The Brotherhood has better members than Slade!"

Mallah shook his head in silent annoyance. "We need him because he has resources we can use." He would have said more, but he was well aware that the Drones around them were transmitting everything they said back to Slade… wherever that man was at. "Just follow the plan, Rouge."

The heartless shape-shifter snarled lightly at him, but she conceded and turned to let out her anger on the amateurs, when suddenly Gizmo was surrounded by black energy and ripped away from the console.

"Crud!!" cried a startled Gizmo right before he was thrown at Mallah.

The intelligent ape easily caught Gizmo with one hand. "Hmm, about time they showed up. I was getting impatient."

The Titans came charging in fast and hard from a window in the ceiling.

"Titans! Go!" shouted Robin as he landed on the floor.

Madame Rouge gave a single hand signal for the Drones to attack the Titans. As promised by Slade, they obeyed her and darted out of the shadows to intercept them.

She shouted at Mallah. "Finish the rest of the download! I'll deal with these fools…permanently."

Knowing that tune in her voice the intelligent ape pitied the Titans, or he would have if he cared for their well-being. The Titans deserved whatever fated that came across anyone who challenged The Brotherhood of Evil. He himself would have aided in that task, but he had a more important task to complete first. He grunted his acknowledgement and focused his attention back on the console, dropping Gizmo, who was still snared in black energy.

"Hey, furball!" Get me outta this!" demanded Gizmo.

"I have no time to waste on you, whelp!" growled Mallah, keeping his attention on his work.

His response from the young, evil genius was a hail of verbal assaults. Surprising the gorilla slightly by the number of curses the shrimp knew.

Madame Rouge ignored the two and turned to the young villains. "Do not allow the Titans to interfere with the download…or you all will pay dearly for your failure!"

Now frightened, the H.I.V.E. villains obediently obliged and moved in to assist the drones.

Seeing the H.I.V.E. villains moving in, Robin ordered, "Titans! Separate!"

Starfire and Raven flew up into the air above the Drones. Beast Boy moved to the left, morphing into a rhino and plowed into the closest group of drones. Cyborg remained in the back to give cover fire for his teammates with his Sonic Cannon. Robin ran straight into the mass of villains.

"I'm gonna flatten you out with my boots!" stated Mammoth as he charged at Robin head first.

Robin smiled confidently and jumped at the last second on top of Mammoth's head, and then propelled himself off to land right behind all the H.I.V.E. villains. The momentum from Robin's jump sent Mammoth crashing face first onto the floor, and inadvertently tripping up his comrades and sending them all toppling over one another.

Madame Rouge growled in pure frustration at their incompetence and moved in to intercept Robin. "So, the little birdie wishes to play with the big leagues, does he?" sneered Madame Rouge, stretching her fingers out to resemble talons.

Robin drew out one of his Freezo-Disks. "What is the Brotherhood up to, Rouge? And why are you working for Slade?"

His accusation infuriated the shape-shifter. "We work for no one! Especially some has-been who kept losing to children!"

"Like you, huh?" jeered Robin intentionally, aiming to make her lose her focus to her anger. He succeeded beyond his dreams.

Madame Rouge literally saw red. "Why you!"

She stretched out her arms to slash at Robin with her talons. Robin leapt back and threw his disk directly at Madame Rouge. The elongated psycho used her inhuman reflexes and flexibility to twist out of the disks' path, letting it encase the wall behind her in ice. At that moment, Mallah completed the download.

"Rouge! Mission complete! Retreat for now…we'll leave Slade's Drones to cover our escape!" shouted Mallah over to his companion.

"I will not retreat until I've made this Titan suffer!" vowed Madame Rouge, whipping her arms out at Robin, leaving huge slash marks everywhere but on the dodging Titan leader.

"Suit yourself," replied Mallah, inwardly worried by his teammate's odd behavior. '_Is her other persona breaking out…?'_ He quickly pulled out the disc he had downloaded all the information on and placed it safely in one of the compartments in his shoulder strap; at the same time, he took out a small explosive. He tossed the explosive at the ice-covered wall and it detonated on contact, creating a quick exit for him. "I'll just tell The Brain how well _I_ completed the mission!" He then dashed to the exit on all fours, hastily making his way back to the hovercraft they used to arrive at the base.

Madame Rouge, too enraged with Robin and now Mallah, didn't care what The Brain thought anymore. More importantly, she was tired of losing to a bunch of young fools who shouldn't be a problem to handle, and yet, proved time after time to be real troublesome for her.

'_Time I put an end to these kiddie games!_' thought Madame Rouge angrily. She drew back her arms and headed for the exit Mallah used.

"Hey! Come back here!" shouted Robin, chasing after her.

Madame Rouge headed into a hallway that lay beyond the hole, but she wasn't going for the hovercraft. As a matter of fact, she was moving in the complete opposite direction that her comrade Mallah had taken. No, she wasn't leaving until she made the bastard pay for thinking he was her better. That was why she was moving away from the hovercraft. She wanted to find a suitable place to lure Robin into a trap.

Her brooding came to an end when her right foot was suddenly frozen, bringing her to a painful halt. Looking back, she saw Robin readying another Freezo-disk to trap her better. As fast as she could she clinched her left fist and expanded it to resemble a ball, and then used it to smash the ice around her foot. Pain quickly followed as a result of slamming at the ice, finding that the ice had completely frozen her foot. Cursing at the Titan leader, Rouge pivoted to the side to miss being hit by the disk Robin threw at her. She used her momentum to her advantage by rolling herself up into a tight ball and bounced off the wall and ricocheted down the rest of the way.

"You're not getting away!" promised Robin, doubling his effects and ran faster after her.

Madame Rouge unrolled herself when she found an exit. She just got it open when Robin was about to catch up to her.

"That's it, little birdie, keep following me," whispered Madame Rouge, then hurried out through the exit.

Robin charged after her through the exit door and caught her heading into one of the base's hangers. He didn't stop to ponder what was obvious. He knew she was leading him into a trap just by instinct, but he couldn't let her escape until he found out what she and Mallah extracted from the base's computer. Cautiously, he followed Madame Rouge into the hanger. As he entered, he wasn't surprised at all to find she was nowhere in sight. The hanger was filled with stacked crates, giving Rouge plenty of places to hide and ambush him.

Focusing on his surroundings, Robin walked further into the hanger readying a Freezo-Disk and keeping vigilance over his surroundings. He moved in silently between the narrow spaces of the stacked crates, looking for any signs of the shape-shifter. When he came to the end of the fifth stack of crates, he sensed someone sneaking up behind him. But before he could whip around and use his disk, the person sneaking up behind him spoke.

"It's been quite a while…hasn't it, Robin?" said an all-too-familiar strong, calculating voice.

Robin spun on his right heel and snarled, "…Slade."

The one-eyed mastermind stood in a mocking, calm pose with his arms folded comfortably behind him. "I see you've gotten quicker, Robin. I didn't even have to give myself away before you notice my presence." Robin could have sworn he heard a hint of pride in his otherwise cold tune.

"What are you after, Slade?" demanded Robin, tightening his grip on his disk.

"You know me well enough to know I won't simply tell you," chuckled Slade. "But you can find out…"

Robin narrowed his eyes at him. "Exactly how can I find out?"

Slade unfolded his arms and held up one hand in an inviting gesture. "By joining me, of course. There's still so much more you haven't learned yet, Robin. So much more…"

"Sorry, but I've already given my answer to you years ago," replied Robin curtly. "Plus, I'm not interested in being an apprentice to anyone, ever!"

Slade shook his head, as if he was humoring a child, which in a sense to Slade, he was. "No, you've learned on your own. I want you to be my partner, Robin…my equal."

Of all the things he ever expected Slade to say, that wasn't one of them. "P-Partner? With you?" It might have seemed like Robin was actually considering such a proposal, but then he quickly stepped into an offensive stance. "You don't share anything, Slade! And besides, I'd never turn my back on my friends for personal gain, not ever!"

Slade actually had the humility to sigh for his short-time apprentice. "Things are different, Robin. You can't understand what is going on right now. You have so much potential, Robin! Does playing the hero really satisfy you that much?"

"I never played, Slade! There isn't another life I'd trade for that could replace the one I have now!" stated Robin firmly.

Slade merely shrugged. "You never know, Robin. Everything changes…including alliances."

"Like you joining The Brotherhood of Evil? Why are you working for them, Slade?" inquired Robin curiously. For all the time he's ever known Slade being a team player wasn't one of them. And he was stalling for time. He was confident in his skills to defeat Slade, but he wasn't too sure when and where Madame Rouge was going to strike. If she attacked now, Robin knew he'd have the disadvantage. His only hope at the moment was to play along with Slade's word games and hope the others found him soon.

Slade tensed ever-so-slightly. "I didn't join that pack of fools. I only acquired their services to distract you and your friends long enough to complete my own objectives." He withdrew a compact disc from his belt. "I already gotten the files I require while Gizmo unknowingly unlocked the firewalls and safeguards for me." He wiggled it in the air just enough to widen Robin's shocked look and quickly placed it back in the compartment in his belt. "But that wasn't my only objective. My other objective is to offer you something not even you could pass up, Robin."

Robin looked at him skeptically. "Oh, I doubt that."

"Then let me settle your doubt. What I have to offer actually will benefit you…and your friends…" replied Slade, almost mumbling that last part. "There are powers at work in the city, Robin. Powers that would put Trigon to shame!"

"That's all you care about, Slade...Power!" growled Robin. "You think everyone is interested in gaining more power like you."

"Aren't they, Robin?" challenged Slade with and amused tone. "Haven't you sought power in order to defeat the criminals you come across? And don't say you don't; you're too mature now to make a childish remark like that. You seek power just like me, even if you've used the power you gain to be a martyr…"

Robin glared at his arch-nemesis. In a way he had a point. He did want to be stronger, he wanted to be better than the opponents he faced off…but there was one major sufficient difference.

"You might think helping those weaker than myself is being a martyr, Slade. Wanting to help those that can't help themselves against people like you! But to me, that's worth anything…even my own life!" declared Robin proudly.

"Robin, for once stop thinking like a fool…!" Slade was suddenly cut off when he suddenly leapt forward at Robin.

Robin, thinking it was attack, readied himself to counter him, but when suddenly Slade halted just a fraction in front of him and grabbed his arm he didn't fight back. It wasn't a grapple move as he first thought because Slade left himself a wide opening in his defense. He knew Slade enough to know that had he meant to attack, he'd never leave an open for Robin, it would have been an insult to the both of them. Robin let Slade pull him and a good thing he did, too. Right where he had been standing, a elongated arm had slammed and planted itself in the concrete ground. A moment later, Madame Rouge leapt down from her hiding place from atop the crates, glaring at Slade venomously.

"I knew you weren't to be trusted!" growled Madame Rouge lowly. "You will pay for using and betraying The Brotherhood."

Slade narrowed his eye with a twinge of mockery and amusement.

"Your group was necessary to draw out the Titans. As for betrayal?" He smiled behind his mask and that smile reflected in his eye. "I never had joined or ever will work for a bunch of second-rates."

As he predicted the shape-shifter threw him a hateful glare and readied to attack. That is until she smirked and began to chuckle. Slade remained composed on the outside, but inwardly he was concerned by her mood change. Thankfully, he moved Robin to his right side so he could cast a quick glance at him with his remaining eye. Like him, Robin was keeping a cool exterior; and like him, he knew the young man was also calculating her actions. How he wished Robin would understand his way of reasoning. They were so much alike in almost all aspects. He could be a power to be feared...if only he'd let go of his foolish ideals.

The cycloptic villain smirked behind his mask. If all went according to his plan. Then the young hero _will_ see his way of thinking...But first, he had to clean up some loose ends with this crazy woman and her organization.

He was about to ask why Madame Rouge was smirking so confident, when he quickly sensed movement all around him. Out from behind the towers of crates came a squadron of his Drones, except these drones were completely black and in place of their standard laser handguns, they all were equipped with plasma wrist-blades, each glowing and illuminating the hanger in a azure hue. His blood began to boil in rage. The bastards had taken this temporary alliance to copy his drone's designs! He vowed in that moment that they would regret this to their last dying breath.

Robin was about to make a retort to Slade, but when he looked at the mastermind he saw rage boiling in his visible, remaining eye. "Guessing these aren't yours, huh, Slade?"

Madame Rouge's smirk grew upon also noticing Slade's reaction to the 'improved' drones. "I see General Immortus didn't waste any time in constructing 'our' new Assassin Drones."

"No one steals my designs..." warned Slade. "You just crossed a very wrong line, Rouge."

"Had you simply been loyal to us, you dog, then you would have benefited from the new Drones we made from your _inferior_ models," jeered Madame Rouge, sauntering over to the closest Drone, and chuckled manically. "Heh, heh! It's only right that you should he killed by your own weapons, Slade."

Robin instantly heard the sound of a fist clinching. He glanced once more at Slade to see his assumption was correct.

"Irony is a pain, isn't it?"

"Indeed..." growled Slade with a hint of malice.

Robin didn't hold back his smile. He admitted that he was taking pleasure from Slade's predicament. How could he not? It wasn't every day he got to witness the mastermind's discomfort.

Slade noticed this and glowered at the Titan leader. "Keep your focus where it needs to be, Robin. These Drones are deadlier than what I originally made them out to be."

This was all too true. His keen eye noted the various new changes that the old fool made. These Drones were made purely to kill. He sneered at this. He was many things and done many more, but a coward he was not. He originally made his Drones for more espionage purposes; to gather information and sometimes acquire items for him rather than for actually combat. Yes, he installed a combat system in them, but that also was for espionage purposes. Mainly, to use to test his opponents strengths so he could analyze their abilities and determine a weakness. That was what they were truly for...not tools for cowards who were too scared to get their hands dirty.

He quickly pressed a command button located on belt-buckle, which would send a signal for his remaining Drones to report to him for new commands. But when he did, Madame Rouge laughed wickedly.

"Do not bother, Slade," said Madame Rouge. "We had our Drones dispatch your pathetic ones...and dispatch the rest of those annoying Titans."

Robin gasped. "W-What...?"

Madame Rouge turned to him as a cruel smile grew on her face. "That's right, Robin. When I pulled you into this hanger, I had sent a signal for our drones to...kill everyone here on the base. And I promise you, they have already made your comrades into fresh corpses..."

Robin felt his heart sank. All his friends...dead? He couldn't believe it...or so he would have been lead, until he realized they couldn't be dead. He'd definitely feel it if they were killed...He would feel his connection to...

"Nice try, Rouge. But my teammates are still alive and they won't be stopped by these killing machines," declared Robin with pure confidence. "I'd know if they'd die."

Slade quirked up a hidden eyebrow at Robin. "Is it because you have so much faith in your friends?"

Robin didn't miss the note of sarcasm in Slade's voice. "No, it's much deeper than that...something you'd never understand."

Slade took this under great consideration. At first he believed he was talking about his alien lover and was about to remark on how idiotic Robin was to believe his intimate feelings could establish such a connection. Just as he was, though, another thought popped in his mind.

"I see..." murmured Slade to Robin.

Robin glared at Slade. Something inside him alerted alarm bells in his head at the way Slade was too at ease with that information. He'd have to worry about that another time. Right now he had to get out of this spot with his life if he hoped to see his teammates and his lover again. It wasn't going to be easy, not with those new Drones and Madame Rouge to content with...and Slade to tip-toe around.

Slade must have come to the same conclusion as him. "As much as you despise me, Robin, I don't enjoy the thought of being done in by ripped-off versions of my Drones."

That was all Robin needed to know. Instantly, the two slammed their backs close together. Robin replaced his disk for his Bo Staff and readied it in a defensive pose, just as Slade pulled out his own version from his belt and extended it out.

"Oh, now this is a sight," mused Madame Rouge. "Arch-rivals joining forces in hopes of stopping the inevitable..." She chuckled cruelly at their antics. "You have no hopes, even together, in stopping me and this squadron. They will kill you without hesitation. Believe me on this...I wrote it into their program." She pretended to sigh and raised one hand. "But enough of this time consuming conversation. I grow bored with it." She made a chopping motion with her hand and the Assassin Drones attacked.

The ex-apprentice and Master moved as one. Robin parried the lunge of one Drone's wrist-blade with his Bo Staff and countered with an elbow into the Drones temple, smashing its head and disabling it. Behind him, Slade blocked a jab from another Drone and twirled his Bo Staff to push the Drone to his side, giving him time to high-kick the Drone's head, breaking its cybernetic neck and decommissioning it forever. Then both stepped back to keep their backs close together. They repeated this every time two or more Drones attacked: blocking, countering, and then regrouping. It was a basic fighting strategy; nothing fancy about it or complicated. In life-or-death battles, sometimes the simplest tactics kept the most seasoned warrior alive. That is until Madame Rouge jumped into the fray.

She had gotten tired of seeing The Brotherhood's newest Drones be reduced to scrap-iron by these fools. She lashed out at the two of them with one arm, forcing the two to split and change to another battle tactic. What neither realized was that Madame Rouge's strike forced Robin closer to her and pushed Slade closer to the Drones. She wanted to take out the weaker of the two, and in her opinion the Titan leader was very much the weakest because of his age and his youthful cockiness.

She leapt in closer to Robin and began whipping out her arms at speeds that made her a threat to Kid Flash. Robin was able to dodge one arm, just barely, but he wasn't able to dodge the other arm. It solidly slammed into Robin's back, smashing him painfully down to the concrete flooring. She moved in on him before he could regain the air his lungs lost, whipping her arm out once more and bashing Robin again on the back, this time, she was rewarded with a sickly snap of ribs breaking.

Robin cried out in pain.

Madame Rouge grinned sinisterly as she stalked over to the wounded Titan leader and drove her heel into the rib she believed was broken. The wail of agony that followed afterward told her she was right. Her grin widened.

"So this is the little birdie's song?" chuckled Madame Rouge. "How lovely to hear...I want to hear more!"

She then proceeded to grind her heel on the broken rib, resulting in Robin screaming more in pain and trying to wiggle free from her. She stretched her right arm and grabbed Robin on the back of his head.

"Sing a little louder for me!" crackled Madame Rouge, pulling his head up and forcing his back to bend and drive her heel more into his rib, shattering it.

Blood quickly poured out of Robin's mouth, feeling it fill his right lung as a fracture of his shattered rib pierced it. Madame Rouge gleefully twisted her heel more, hearing another rib break. She would have continued breaking all his ribs in this fashion if she hadn't sensed movement behind her and twisted just her torso out of the way. When she twisted her head completely around to look behind her, she saw Slade had abandoned his Bo Staff for a collapsible Katana he had hidden in his armor to stab her through with. She frowned at him playfully as she turned her body to match her head, semi-dragging Robin with her as she still had a hold of his head.

"I do not see what you saw in this pathetic worm, Slade," grunted Madame Rouge, as she raised Robin up off the ground. "He has no special qualities other than sticking his nose where it never belonged." She took a moment to ponder more on Robin, playing it up as much as she could while she thought of the next thing to do to the Titan leader. As she did, a thought came to her as she looked at Slade's eye...or rather the one he lacked. "Hmm, maybe I do see the potential. He's just like you, Slade: bold, harsh...and pathetic to believe to be a match for me." She stretched her index finger, sharpening her nail to a claw and she positioned it over Robin's left eye. "...But he doesn't look anything like you. I think we should correct that."

Slade's visible eye widened. Robin wasn't sure but he thought he saw fear in Slade's eye.

"...No," murmured Madame Rouge, retracting her index finger. "He should have his own individuality!" Faster than she stretched her index finger, she stretched out her thumb and drove the sharp digit straight into Robin's protective mask and straight into his right eye, borrowing it deeply.

The scream that poured forth from Robin was by far more agonizing than any he had made previously.

"...No," whispered Slade, nearly losing his grip on his Katana and staring in disbelief at the gory scene, watching in horror as Madame Rouge bore her thumb in Robin's right eye, He immediately tightened his grip on the sword and glared with pure hatred at the shape-shifter. "You ruined him!!"

Madame Rouge wiggled her bloody thumb slightly deeper in Robin's ruined eye. "Oh, don't be so harsh. I think it's an improvement. See, now he has your eye...well, lack of an eye. Heh, heh, heh!"

Slade thought she would stop there...but she continued. She retracted her thumb and with her free hand, she lengthened her fingers to the length of daggers and impaled them in Robin's gut. Madame Rouge only laughed madly as her arm was showered in warm red blood. Slade had enough. She was purposely torturing Robin because she understood how it would affect him. If she was hoping to hit the nail into the wood...she drove that nail in far too hard. Slade lunged out at Madame Rouge, aiming to cleave her head clean off her. Were her reflexes not better than his own, he would have achieved it. She was ready for his attack and easily extended her neck and head out of his blade's path. She leapt back and pulled her fingers out of Robin and tossed the Titan leader aside, sending him flying through the air like a rag doll and crashing into a crate. The force of his impact caused the ones stacked on top of it to cave in on it...crushing everything beneath them.

In a moment of panic, Slade forgot everything and started toward the collapsed crate. That moment caught him dearly. Madame Rouge lashed out at him with her arms and slammed him away from the collapsed crates. She knocked him against another stack of crates.

"I never thought you'd care for someone, Slade," sneered Madame Rouge. "To imagine, the heart of cold steel, Slade...forgetting his head for the death of a contemptible boy...how utterly pathetic."

Slade pushed himself off the cracked crate and raised his sword. "You have no idea the damage you've just done..."

"I don't care what you had planned for that worm!" growled Madame Rouge. "All I did was show just how insufficient that wretched boy was!" She readied to strike at him again…but was stopped when she felt something...dark filled the hanger. It's presence sent a cold chill down her spine, forcing her to stop in her tracks.

"You will pay for what you did, you damned psycho..." spoke a deep, dark voice from everywhere.

Madame Rouge darted her head around every direction she could to locate the person who spoke. "Show yourself!"

"As you wish..." replied the mysterious voice.

A rumble came from the ruined crates short before all the wreckage was sent flying everywhere. Madame Rouge and Slade shielded against or dodged the debris that fell down over them. When no more debris was falling, Madame Rouge glared at the spot from where the debris came from...and gasped.

In the middle of the now cleared wreckage, glowed a pair of ethereal black wings. Those wings slowly folded behind a tall man, who was holding Robin in his arms. The man was oddly tall and slim with black hair that reached down way past his waist and pulled back in a loose ponytail. He had long black bangs that nearly hide half the left side of his face, more was hidden by the thick black sunglasses he wore to hide his eyes. He was dressed in all black, wearing a long leather black jacket and leather tight pants to match. There was no shirt on him, just the jacket, exposing a solid toned and extremely pale chest. The oddest features on him were around his waist: ten belts. TEN! Seven of them were hanging diagonally off his hips, but were supported by three that fit horizontally around his thin waist. Along the length of each belt was a role of red glyphs. But those belts weren't the oddest things he wore. His boots were steel-plated around where his feet fit in them, with rows of buckled belts making up the length of his boots up to his knees.

The strange man kneeled down and placed Robin carefully down on the ground. Slade stalked over close enough to see that Robin had suffered more damage when he crashed into the crates. He had more cuts and wounds all over him and in the center of his chest stuck out a piece of broken wood.

"Give him to me, now!" commanded Slade.

The stranger ignored him as he looked down at Robin and raised his pale hand to stroke his face. "...Poor boy. Poor boy."

Slade drew his katana and pointed the tip at the strangers head. "I wasn't asking you. Give him to me now or you will pay...with your life."

The stranger's wings folded completely to back and they melted into the fabric of his jacket. In their place appeared a long black sheath that was nearly as long as he was, and in that sheath was a sword, a very long sword with a hilt decorated like a serpents' tail and a bladed tip at the end of the hilt. He slowly raised his face up to Slade and as he did, he grinned devilishly...

"You'll find it hard to take my life...when I lost it centuries ago," mused the stranger, chuckling darkly. He slowly rose to his full height and undid the sheath on his back from its harness, then laid its length over his shoulders and folded his long arms around it.

"This boy only has a few minutes of life left," informed the stranger. "But not enough time for anyone to get him to be treated." He turned his head to Madame Rouge and a faint red glow emitted from behind his sunglasses. "...The wounds are fatal."

Slade stared downed at Robin, shaking with untold rage. "This wasn't the way it was suppose to happen, Robin. You were going to be the one to stand at my side...my equal."

Surprisingly, even in the significant amount of pain he was in, Robin managed to turn his head to look directly at Slade. "...I-I still w-wouldn't h-have...j-join..." He was stopped by a fit of cough that forced more blood to pour from his mouth.

Slade closed his eye. He couldn't look anymore at Robin without feeling...sad.

"Then at least let me end your suffering...for both our sakes," offered Slade, tightening his grip on his sword.

Robin stared at Slade with his one good eye…at his most hated enemy. The man he vowed to put to justice if it killed him. Now it was this same man that he thought was too heartless to show mercy, too cruel to ever give mercy, offer to end his suffering. Slade was truly an enigma to him even in his time of dying. Had he the strength, he'd defy Slade one more time...just to spite him one last time, but his vision was slowly darkening and he could feel his other lung feel with blood. All he could do was think and decide how he wanted to go out. So far all he had were two choices and both weren't fun. His first choice was to just let his blood fill his lungs completely and suffocate him to death...Or he could accept Slade's offer and have a quick, clean death. If the stranger was right, he had no other choice than death...

"S-Slade," whispered Robin.

Slade nodded in response to let him know he was listening.

"...T-Tell...my...my friends...I...I," he was halted again by a fit of coughing and more blood bubbling up his throat.

Slade moved to Robin. "I know what you wish to say..."

He drew back his sword and was readying the killing blow. when suddenly, the stranger appeared right in his way and kicked him right in the gut, sending him flying through the air and landing roughly fifteen feet away from where he had stood.

"You won't kill this boy, Slade. Even if your intentions were...admirable," the stranger said, grinning wider. "I have my own plans for him."

Slade stormed back onto his feet. "Plans? Who the hell are you?!"

Madame Rouge stepped forward, raising her arms up and lashing them out at the stranger. "Dead man is who he is!"

The stranger made no motion to dodge her attack. In the last second that her arms were about to connect, he moved. That was the only way to describe what happened then. One second he looked like he was going to take the strike, the next, Madame Rouge was knocked off her feet by a kick in the face by a plated foot she never saw come at her. The stranger was now standing right in front of her with his right leg still raised up.

"Don't bite more than you can chew, bitch," hissed the stranger. "You have no idea what you're facing."

Madame Rouge rolled to her side and wiped the back of her hand over her chin, looking down to see blood smeared on it. "You'll pay for interfering!" She made another chopping moment.

The Assassin Drones lunged at the stranger with their wrist-blades blazing hot. The stranger grinned evilly and again made no move to stop the assault. And like before he waited till the last second, but this time he didn't move at all. This time, a darkness rose up from the ground and in a blink of an eye; all the Drones were sliced to pieces. Madame Rouge stared in total disbelief as the darkness that attacked slowly moved behind the stranger…and opened burning red glowing eyes at her and smiled. Yes, it smiled a mouth full of pure white sharp teeth for her to see. The shadow looked to be forming an upper human torso, extending long, muscular arms that ended with wicked long talons. The shadow slowly leaned over the stranger, with one arm resting over his shoulders and matched his wicked grinning face.

"As I said, bitch…you have no idea what you're facing," repeated the stranger with gleeful malice.

Madame Rouge just snarled at him and stood back up. "You'll have to do more than make your shadow scary to defeat me."

The stranger threw his head back as he started laughing darkly, and said, "Come on, babe. Let's get nasty!"

"Don't call me babe!" raged Madame Rouge, lashing out at him with her arms.

The shadow behind the stranger reacted quickly. It whipped around the stranger and countered the arms with its own, batting them away with little effort. It stretched itself out and slashed at Madame Rouge with its talons, forcing her to leap back. The shadow continued coming at her, twisting in the air, building up momentum, and lunging back at her new position. Once more it slashed out at her again and again, backing her away.

The stranger turned away from the fight, knowing his shadow could deal with her. Just as he fully turned around, he brought the end of his sheath down to block Slade's sword from taking his neck. Not letting that stop him, the stranger used his momentum to keep spinning and pushed Slade's sword back and delivered a kick to the owner's exposed flank, then stopped spinning to face Robin once more.

"Stay out of this, Slade," warned the stranger. "You're wasting my time and Robin's."

Slade had been thrown off balance by the kick, but quickly recovered and leapt at the stranger once more, slashing down at him. "You can't help him! No one can…"

The stranger side-stepped gracefully and once more kicked Slade faster than he could block away from him. "You're wrong, Slade. I'm the only one that can save him. But the more your stall me, the more his chances are gone." The stranger kneeled down to Robin and slipped his hand behind Robin's head. "Robin? Can you hear me?"

Slade was just getting himself back up and ready to strike when he saw Robin nod. He stopped and couldn't help but wonder if this person really could help Robin, and if he could, why? What was this man's agenda? Whatever it was, Slade would let this man help, then deal with him and get his apprentice back. He looked on more as Robin stared up at the man with his remaining eye, twitching slightly as his life drained from his body.

"Time is running out for you, Robin," continued the stranger. "You only have a few moments before death takes you. But it doesn't have to be so…"

Robin's good eye gazed at him blankly, already seeing darkness circling around his remaining imagine. "H-How…?"

"I can save you, Robin…but at a cost," replied the stranger, curling his long, pale fingers through Robin's black locks.

Robin attempted to chuckle but it came out in a fit of bloody coughing. "F-Figures…"

The stranger softened his devilish grin to a friendly one. "It isn't as bad as you may think, but there isn't time to explain…you need to make a choice now, Robin." He raised his free hand up to Robin's face. "You can accept my help and let me heal you…or…" He slowly placed his hand on the piece of wood sticking out of Robin's chest. "I can give you the peace your own enemy was willing to give you."

"H-How can y-you heal-l me?" managed Robin weakly.

"By giving you my embrace…my scarlet embrace, Robin," replied the stranger solemnly.

Slade's eye went wide with surprise. "…Embrace? Who…Who are you?"

Even in Robin's state, he could detect the note of fear in his voice.

The stranger looked back at Slade and smiled widely as his canines slowly lengthened to fangs. "Oh? Strange that you aren't asking 'what' I am."

"I know what you are!" snapped Slade, clenching his fist. "I don't waste time asking things I already know. Now! Tell me who you are!"

The stranger looked away from Slade, gazing back at Robin and stroking his hair. "I've been called man y things. Most of them from my enemies…but there is one name they called me that I've grown fond of."

"No…!" Slade's eye widened even more as he started to step back from the stranger, almost dropping his sword…almost. "You can't be…"

The stranger laughed darkly and lifted Robin up from the cold ground and cradled him to his chest, oddly as a father would a child. His jacket smoked as darkness emerged on his back and those ethereal wings returned and extended out in their full glory. "…Yes…I am." His wings flexed and he disappeared from sight along with Robin.

In the background, the shadow that was attacking Madame Rouge faded into the surrounding shadows, saving its evil grin for last in spite at her.

Madame Rouge roared in fury. "That bastard! I will make him a corpse if it's a last thing I do!"

Slade tightened his grip in cold fury. "You'd be wasting your time, Madame Rouge…"

Madame Rouge brought her furious gaze on the mastermind. "Tell me what you know of that dead man or I will force it out of you!"

Slade scoffed at her and started walking away from her and disappeared into the shadows, but his voice carried out to her. "He's already a dead man, Rouge. That man you just met was no man…that was a monster, a real monster…one you would never hope to best…nor me."

--

The stranger reappeared on top of Titans Tower, placing Robin down on the rooftop gently. "I'm sorry for taking you from your friends, Robin. But I need you and I to be alone for this with no interruptions."

Robin couldn't reply. His strength was nearly gone, draining out of him with each drop of blood oozing out of him. The stranger looked worried, or so Robin thought as his face actually started to look paler to him. The stranger removed his jacket, revealing a nasty scar on his chest. The scar appeared to look as if someone had drilled four holes into his chest, leaving four wickedly horrid scars. He then placed his sword and his jacket gently down next to Robin, and then kneeled down and ripped opened the front of his ruined costume.

He stopped there and looked down into Robin's eye and brought his hand up once more to him. "You must make the choice now, Robin. Accept this…and you will never fear death again."

"Ca…cat…" coughed Robin, fighting with every ounce of his being to keep his eye open.

"Catch?" finished the stranger, receiving a weak nod from Robin. "…You will be different, I won't lie to you. You will no longer be human….you'll be something more…and something dark, very dark." He hushed Robin when he started struggling. "But you will have control of it, Robin. I will see that you can…now please. Your heart is slowing down, and you're almost completely out of blood from your injuries. You most choose…darkness…or death?" Feeling the faint reluctance, the stranger leaned closer, enough to whisper into his ear. "...Do you want to leave this world with my face as its last imagine…or that of someone precious to you?"

That was the clincher. Immediately, Robin thought of his friends, his Starfire…and…

Deep inside of him he felt something open up and reach out to one of his teammates, the one that felt everything he felt drew strength from secretly…his closest and dearest friend, and he knew she was alive and afraid for him. How he wanted to stay with them, tell them one more time how much they meant to him. His body must have decided for him because his hand moved on its own and trembled to grasp the stranger's.

The stranger eased his effort and moved his hand so Robin could let his fall into it, and smiled. "So be it…"

Unbelievably to Robin, the stranger used his other hand to plunge his fingers right into his chest; precisely where his scars were and dug them into his flesh and cutting open his own heart with his nails. Horrified but this mutilation, Robin was too shock to realize that the stranger had let go of his hand and grabbed the piece of wood in his chest and rip it out, then used it to. All he knew was pain after that, blinding all his senses. He never felt the stranger quickly grab him and hugged him close to his pale body, pressing their wounds together and letting their blood mix into each other. Then, when both their blood pooled into the other's body, they both were engulfed in unimaginable pain, howling in agony to the night as the blood burned like acid in their veins.

Robin didn't know how he found the strength or where it could have come from, but he cried, "…W-What's happening to me!?"

The stranger hissed in pain and pulled Robin closer into his embrace. "…You're dying, Robin…you have to die before you can be reborn…"

And that was the last thing Robin heard before he past out from the excruciating pain. He slumped raggedly against his 'savior'…and remained motionless. The stranger continued to hold Robin to his chest, letting their blood mix more into their chests. The foreign blood from the stranger moved like it was alive, slithering its way into every cell in Robin's body. Already noticeable changes were taking place. The bits of wood and splinters lacing Robin's body were pushed out, leaving a minor wound before quickly healing up, as if made of hot wax and skillful invisible hands were smoothing it out to perfect, pale skin. His hair grew out, now reaching past his waistline, his body thinned out some. Next, his already built body toned more out, sharpening his features…purging now un-necessary body fluids as it did. The sound of bones crackling could be hard clearly as they realigned themselves and refused to their original state. With the bones back in their place, all his torn muscles and punctured organs reattached and healed up. Once this miraculous change was over, the stranger collapsed to the bloody rooftop, pulling Robin off his chest and laying him down next to him rough. He then rolled onto his back and stared up wildly into the night sky as the blood he received from Robin healed his only injury…and flooded his mind with memories belonging to Robin.

His eyes moved rapidly seeing imagines play back and forth through his mind, seeing all that Robin saw, feeling all that Robin felt; experiencing everything he experienced. He knew this would happen. It was his kind's ability to understand better the one they embraced, to know what they truly felt and thought to better grow a bond between them. After some time had passed, the stranger had fully worked out Robin's memories and sat up weakly, looking down at the unconscious hero.

"…What a hard life you've had, my boy," whispered the stranger, reaching out and stroking one of Robin's long black locks. "I wish I could promise it will get easier from here on…but that would be a lie." He slowly looked up at the moon while continuing to stroke the one lock and grinned, looking fully satisfied by what he had done. "But what a life you will now trend, my boy…Oh, what new things you will discover in your new world, Robin…" He gazed back down at the blood-covered Titan Leader, watching the hole in his chest finally heal itself, leaving the only scar he'll ever have for the rest of his existence of a jagged hole, from where the piece of wood had once been impaled in him. "…Welcome to my world, Robin…my dark angel…"

Right after he said those words he slowly began to chuckle deeply. Soon his chuckling grew to full laughter, laughing so hard his shoulders shook violently, and then his laughter turned to mad crackling that carried all through-out the night.

--

A/N: Once more I wish to thank you for reading my work and hope you take the time to review. I will state now that I will only acknowledge constructive reviews. If you simply leave a flamer telling me how much you didn't like it, I will ignore it, as it's a waste of my time and your time for leaving such a review. If you do wish to criticize, then please let it be in a professional, constructive manner. I cannot improve if I'm not told what it is I need to improve on. I don't have time to go back and re-do it, and no beta-reader to help me. So, again, please be thoughtful before leaving one.

For those of you who have been faithful and staying with me for this long, I wish to hear your opinion the most of all about this new version. I hope you enjoy this story more than you had its previous version. Thank you all and I will have the next update out soon, that's for sure as I'll be already moving on to start that one. Tell then…

'_May the Night Bless you'_


	2. Requiem of Shadow

Disclaimer: I don't own or claim any rights to Teen Titans. They are the rightful property of Cartoon Network and DC Comics. Rightful, and only claim, is to the plot and the following OCs: Sin.

A/N: Thank you people who reviewed. I'm glad to see this new version is already getting positive responses. For those of you that are still in the dark. Read the Author's Note in the first chapter for clarification. So everyone knows I'll be using elements from the comic book: _Teen Titans! Go!_ If no one has read them, that's fine. I'll clear up anything you wish to know if you let me know.

--

**Requiem of Shadow**

Everything happened too fast for Raven to really recall. One moment she was imprisoning the H.I.V.E. villains in an energy field for the police; one that not even Kyd Wykkyd could teleport out of…the next moment, she nearly was slashed to death had she not caught the hint of blue light from the corner of her eye. She had enough time to levitate out of the blade's path and look at the new black Drone that nearly got her. She tried to warn her teammates, but she was too distracted with dodging the advancing black Drone to shout out one.

Luckily, Cyborg had detected them on his sensors, alerting them of their approach as hordes of black Drones filed into the room. "Guys! New ball game! Go full-out!"

Instantly all the Titans switched to full offence. Beast Boy changed into an Ankylosaurus and charged at the Drones, flattening them under its feet and spinning to a halt and swinging his clubbed tail to smash a few more. Cyborg himself switched his Sonic Cannon's energy output to maximum and began blasting Drones to smithereens. Starfire allowed her alien fury to grow to its full extent and unleashed powerful starbolts on the Drones, or moved in to close enough to rip the Drones with her bare hands.

As for Raven…she merely stood stationary and waited for the Drones to come to her. When the Drones moved close to her to take advantage of her passiveness, they quickly found themselves stuck to the ground. Had they been given more intelligence, they would have noticed the pool of dark energy bleeding out from under Raven's cloak.

When enough of them were stopped, she whispered in a raspy, monotone voice. "..._Azarath, Metrion…Zinthos_."

Upon the last word of her chant, all the black Drones that were caught by her energy were suddenly dragged down into it, vanishing into the deepest parts of her soulself. The energy retracted into her cloak and she moved calmly to the next enemy, like death itself. As she got near enough, she opened her cloak briefly enough for tendrils of dark matter to whip out and wrap around more Drones, and then drag them inside her cloak to vanish within as did their cybernetic comrades.

It took mere moments before the Titans had dismantled all the supposed deadly Drones.

Cyborg picked up one of the ruined remains of scraps and examined it closer. "This is odd. They look like Slade's drones…but they've got the Brotherhood's marks all over them," informed his teammates.

Beast Boy morphed back into his human form. "Who cares? We totaled them with no problems."

Cyborg glared at Beast Boy out of the corner of his human eye. "The problem, Beast Boy, is that if these are a result of Slade and the Brotherhood joining forces. Just imagine what else they could do." He picked up one of the Drones arms, showing the green changeling its deactivated wrist-blade. "These were made to fight, nothing more. From the looks of it, these were just prototypes. Just imagine how deadly their improved models will act."

As they were talking, Starfire looked around for Robin. "Has anyone seen where Robin had gone?"

"He went after Madame Rouge," replied Raven emptily.

Starfire gasped and floated up off the ground. "Then we best go find him! He will need our help to subdue her!"

Raven turned her back to everyone and started walking away. "He's a big boy, Starfire. He can take care of….AH!!"

Pain exploded in Raven's body. An unbelievable amount of it drilled into various parts of her body. Her vision went white from the searing pain and she nearly blacked out. She couldn't make sense of anything or why she was in such agony. That is until she realized that it wasn't her pain she was experiencing. No, this pain was someone else's, someone close and dear to her…and she felt fear grip her heart.

"No…" whispered Raven fearfully, immediately reaching out to the source the pain was coming from, hoping that her fears were not real…

She was sadly greeted with even more pain when she opened her bond. The bond she formed with Robin since that night she entered his mind to help him fight his delusions. To this day that bond had remained strong, if not grown stronger since he opened more to her since her recent hardship. Now that same bond between her and Robin was letting her know that he was in terrible agony. As she tried to make sense of why he was in pain, she felt hands grabbing her. At first she started to fight them but the hands were stronger than normal hands and felt hard and smooth. When she reached the brim of her cloak up enough, she found that she had at some time collapsed to the floor. Above her was Cyborg, who was trying to help her sit up and looking very concerned for her.

"Raven, what's wrong?" asked Cyborg worriedly.

She soon stopped fighting him and let him help her up, leaning into his massive frame for support as she tried to understand what had happened. She closed her eyes and focused on her bond with Robin, fighting through the unbearable pain to reach out to him. Her mental prowess proved stronger than the pain and she began to understand why Robin was in such pain. As she opened the bond wider, she saw flashes of what happened to Robin. Through his mind she saw his confrontation with Slade, then the black Drones swarming around him, and finally his defeat at the hands of Madame Rouge. From that point on, everything was hazy, and then darkness blocked everything after that. But one thing she could make out of all that chaos was that Robin was in serious danger…

"Oh Azar…" murmured Raven in fear, clinging herself closer to Cyborg.

"What?! What's wrong, Raven?" repeated Cyborg with more urgency.

Raven slowly raised a fingerless, elbow-length black gloved hand, with a red gem on the back of it from under her cloak and pulled her hood off. Like Starfire, she had matured into a prime example of a woman. Except where's Starfire had an exotic beauty, Raven's was more dark. Her once lavender hair had darkened to near black, giving her hair the illusion of her namesake's feathers. Her grey skin had remained the same shade, as did the color of her eyes, which had grown even more blank of emotion over the years. But as Cyborg looked into her revealed face, he found that those normally cold, emotionless eyes were now flooding with tears and pain, and her chakra gem blazing.

"Robin! He's…He's dying!" cried Raven.

Starfire nearly went into shock. "D-Dying!? We must get to him now! Where is he, Raven?"

Raven told them that he was in a nearby hanger. She led them to there just in time to see Madame Rogue storm out of the hanger.

"Rouge!" roared Starfire, charging like a comet at the psycho shifter.

Madame Rouge twisted her torso out of Starfire's way, smiled just as twisted at her. "You're too late, you redheaded bitch! Your little birdie is long gone from here! _Au revoir!_" She then leapt up high above the hanger and started running away.

Raven began chanting her words to encase the psychotic woman, but then she caught Slade walking calmly out if the hanger. Forgetting the psychotic woman, she directed her anger on their oldest nemesis. "Slade! What have you done to Robin?"

The one-eyed mastermind glared at all the Titans. "…Nothing."

Beast Boy morphed into a tiger and growled threateningly at the villain. "Don't lie to us, Slade! Where is Robin?"

Slade widened his eye slightly in awe. "So you now talk while in an animal form now? Hmm, that's quite…unimpressive."

Beast Boy growled even louder, snapping his jaws slightly in irritation. "Just tell us before we make you!"

Slade shrugged. "I don't know."

Starfire floated down right in front of him with blazing emerald eyes. "Tell us the truth!"

"Do you really want to know, Starfire?" mused Slade, crossing his arms behind him in that arrogant pose he always assumed. "All right. I'll tell you…He's gone."

Starfire roared in rage and charged a starbolt in her fist and readied to fire it right in Slade's face.

"Wait, Starfire!" warned Raven, walking right up to her. "He's right…Robin's gone. I…I don't sense him anywhere near hear anymore."

Starfire whipped her head to her friend with a stream of tears evaporating from her glowing eyes. "Gone!? He can't be gone! You said he was here!"

Raven raised one hand up for Starfire to calm down. "He's still alive, Starfire. I didn't say he was _gone_ gone. I mean, he's not in the hanger anymore."

Starfire returned her furious gaze back on Slade. "What have you done with him?"

Slade shrugged more, infuriating Starfire more as well as the rest of the Titans.

"Don't play games with us now, Slade," cautioned Cyborg, clinching his fists. "Tell us what we want to know."

"As much as I make it a habit to never tell you Titans anything…I will…" It was true. He was about to tell them about the stranger that supposedly saved Robin and took him away, when he suddenly noticed Raven had fallen to her knees again, shaking badly.

Cyborg was immediately by her side, as was Beast Boy, but he looked too unsure if he should hold her or not.

Cyborg's glare warned him to just stay away, and then pulled Raven into his massive arms. "Raven, what's wrong? Tell us what you're feeling."

"…Cold…so very cold," whimpered Raven hauntingly. "…But I'm burning too. It feels like my bloods on fire…I…I know where Robin is!" She looked up at Cyborg. "He's back…at Titans Tower." She quickly pushed frantically for Cyborg to get off her, who let her, and dived into her soulself. "NO! Robin, don't leave…!"

She soared into the sky and soared toward Titans Island.

"Raven, wait for us!" cried Starfire, who flew after her.

Cyborg growled in frustration. "Damn it! Slade, if I…" He pointed at the spot Slade was standing, but when he turned his head to glare at the villain, he found he was gone. "What the…? Beast Boy! Why didn't you tell me he left!"

Beast Boy, who had been looking up as well, looked down and saw Slade was gone. "What? Ah, crap!" He started sniffing him out but cursed inwardly as his nose picked up a chemical agent that had masked out all other scents around them. "….Son of…That bastard hid his scent! I can't track him!"

Cyborg nearly yelled in anger. "Damn! I don't know what's going on! Ah!" He forced himself to calm down, rubbing his bald head once. "Okay! Beast Boy, you and I are heading back! The MP's can handle the H.I.V.E. Five, we got to go make sure Robin is all right!"

As quickly as they could, the two headed as fast as they could back to Titans Tower, hoping that they could get there in time…

--

_Me…_

That was the last word Raven had said to herself when she changed into her soulself. She soared in desperation to get back to the tower, hoping she would make it in time to save Robin. But as each second she neared the tower, she more she felt Robin slip away from her. Pushing all her will into it, she flew faster until the tower was finally in sight. As she neared, she sensed that someone else was there with Robin…someone dangerous. She could easily sense that through her bond with Robin. Whatever he was doing to him, he was invading their bond, letting her feel all the agony he was putting Robin through. Her soulself eye's blazed white in anger, knowing full well the dangers of letting that happen. Already she could feel…that part…take control of her, fueling her anger and whispering encouraging words to sate its hunger for pain. Immediately she suppressed 'that' and focused her emotions back into the safeguards she installed in her mind. Now wasn't the best time to let that side of her take control…no matter how tempting she was to unleash it on whoever was hurting Robin…

Finally she reached the tower and landed on the roof and returned to her physical form. It was then, when her foot landed on the rooftop, did she nearly lose control of those safeguards she put up. For her fear was thrashing wildly around inside them, causing her pulse to speed up and nearly making her pass out from the sight that lay before her.

Blood lay all around on the rooftop, and unfortunately, the spot that she had landed on in haste was thick with blood. She could feel the thick, warm substance soak into the bottom of her boots, leaving her greatly ill. She started stepping back to get out of the puddle of blood but stopped, already feeling her feet begin to slide under the blood. Had she continued moving, she would have no doubt have fallen down and gotten more blood all over her. She looked down and found that it would have been impossible to get out of the puddle of blood, anyway…

It was only then did her mind begin to finally think. _How could there be so much blood? Wait…this much blood? Oh, Azar…Robin! Is this all his blood?_

She instantly was distracted when her ears picked up maniacal laughter. Slowly, she turned her head to the source and her eyes finally registered the two lying in the center of all the blood. It was then that she saw the stranger, and terror seized her…he was looking right at her. She quickly took note of his figures and his attire, more notably, the blood still oozing out of his chest. He smirked at her when she spotted his morbid state. Awkwardly, he got to his feet, stumbling slightly as he did and clutching his head as if dizzy.

"…Whoa, I didn't think it would be that rough," chuckled the stranger, looking down at his bloody state, rising a finger to his bloody holes and actually running a finger around one of them as it began healing rapidly, leaving only scarred reminders of the wounds. He glazed up at Raven and grinned at her. "Evening!"

Raven was totally in shock. She could do nothing but stare at the blood covered stranger as he acted as if he wasn't standing in a pool of blood.

"W-Who the hell are you?" stammered Raven, her eyes glowing threateningly. "And what have you done to Robin!"

The stranger glanced down at Robin and his grin grew wider, wide enough for her to see his fangs. "I saved him from true death." He looked back up at her and two red dots glowed from his sunglasses. "And you're asking the wrong question."

"…What are you?" said Raven fearfully.

"That… is the correct question," replied the stranger, bowing his head to her.

"…You're not human, that's much been made care," surmised Raven, glaring at the stranger.

"Go on," encouraged the stranger.

"I can't….because it can't be true," said Raven, looking at him in disbelief. "Vampires don't exist…"

The stranger chuckled more. "Whether you believe they do or don't is of little consequence. I assure you that what I am is very real…and now…so is….GAHH!" He was stopped when Starfire dropped out of the air and slammed him down into the ground, her eyes blazing in fury.

"What have you done to Robin?" demanded an enraged Starfire, grabbing the stranger by the throat in a vice-like grip. "Answer me!"

She had seen the blood on the rooftop, and she saw Robin lying in the middle of if all next to the stranger, who too was covered in blood. It didn't take her much time to deduce that he was the one responsible for this state.

The stranger continued to grin at her, even if she was slowly crushing his wind-pipe. "My, my… someone has a temper!"

Starfire's response was a tighter grip. "Answer me!"

The stranger began laughing, and then looked directly into her emerald-glowing eyes. "I saved him."

"Saved him?!" stuttered Starfire, quickly looking at Robin's motionless body, then back to all the blood under them. "This looks more like you massacred him!"

He actually managed to shrug under her death-grip. His callous reaction enraged the redhead further. She raised a fist over her head, charging it with a starbolt, but before she could bring the fist down; the stranger grabbed the side of her hand on his throat and twisted it, forcing her to let go of him. With his long right leg, he kneed her in the middle of her back, forcing her off him. Starfire landed ungracefully on her face, and slid to a halt on the bloody rooftop. She snarled in rage, wiping the blood off her face, her eyes burning off what got in them, and was just getting up when she found the stranger already up on his feet and kneeling down beside Robin.

"Get away from him!" roared Starfire, eyes blazing with emerald fury.

The stranger ignored her and examined Robin. Raven was about to stop him when she saw his grin suddenly frown down.

"This is not good…" whispered the stranger as he reached for his jacket.

Raven stared at him questionably, and then looked down at Robin. "…What do you…Oh Azar!" She cried as she saw why the stranger was frowning now.

Where Robin's right eye once was behind his ripped mask was now an empty eye socket. The stranger quickly ripped off a strip of leather from his jacket and used it to wrap it around to cover the exposed horror.

"That should have been replaced…" murmured the stranger thoughtfully.

"It was? B-But why didn't it?" wondered Raven, watching the stranger tighten and knot the leather strip.

"Not sure. Usually when one turns, all their past or new injuries heal back to their original state," replied the stranger, carefully cradling Robin's head in his hand, staring at him thoughtfully. After a few moments, his devilish grin began to replace the frown he had on. "…Hmm, just maybe."

"Maybe what?" asked Raven in hope.

The stranger looked up at her, and to her surprise, he handed Robin to her. He swung his bloody, ripped jacket over his shoulder and picked up his long sword. He gazed down at her and smiled wider, exposing his fangs once more to her.

"He'll make a full recovery…at some point," replied the stranger. "But for now, he needs rest...He's in for a rough time until he awakes, even if he looks dead to the world."

Raven pulled Robin close to her, not caring she was staining her cloak with blood. "Will he...be the same?"

The stranger nodded. "More or less. Believe what you may have heard, but he won't be some mindless, hungry monster. But I should warn you…he will have a different nature: _a nature_ that will make him seem like he really is a monster." His devilish looks turned serious as he gazed down at Raven. "Will you still see him as the one you always knew? Or will you abandon him when he needs someone the most?"

"I…" Raven didn't dare say anything more. Instead, she cradled Robin closer to her and stared at him.

Starfire had floated up to the air and moved in to grab the stranger. "You will tell me what you did to Robin!"

She reached out to grab him…but just as her hand was about to, he turned to face her, and as he did, his sunglasses dipped down the rim of his nose and her eyes were instantly locked on a pair of crimson ones with slit pupils. The moment their eyes met, Starfire instantly felt her body freeze, as if some force had gripped her.

"What about you? Will you still see him as the one you always knew? Or will you abandon him when he needs someone the most?" repeated the stranger sternly.

"…O-Of course!" declared Starfire, trying to move her body. "He is everything to me!"

The stranger stared at her more with those spellbinding eyes. "…You might be surprised how you act when your conviction is tested."

"I will! Who are you to question that?" challenged Starfire.

The stranger grinned evilly. "Someone with much more experience in the matters of the heart, Princess. As to whom I am…" He looked away and when he did, Starfire felt her body back under her control. He readjusted his sunglasses to cover his red eyes. "…That is for another time. I need to leave to regain my strength. I used too much of it on Robin." He then began walking to the edge of the roof.

"Wait!" cried Raven.

The stranger stopped and glanced over his shoulder. "Yes?"

"You're just gonna leave Robin like this?!" growled Raven, her eyes glowing white under her hood.

The stranger chuckled and continued on walking. "I'll be back tomorrow night for Robin. I just thought it only be right that his friends look after him for the day. But have someone keep an eye on him….If he awakes before nightfall, then you might have a serious problem." He looked away and then stopped as he recalled something else. "Oh, most importantly…do not, and I stress this, do _not_ let him be exposed to sunlight…or you will lose him forever!"

"Lose forever…?!" uttered Starfire with complete fear.

The man chuckled evilly and continued on toward the edge of the roof, then stopped once more and looked at the two stunned Titans. "See you tonight…" And he fell backwards off the tower.

Starfire gasped and zoomed over to catch the crazy stranger. But when she flew to the edge, there was no sign of the stranger…nothing.

"Where'd he go?" wondered Starfire.

Raven didn't hear Starfire. She really didn't even care. If what that stranger said was really true, then they had more important things to be concerned with than where he went.

"Starfire, help me get Robin to my room," said Raven.

The redhead whipped around to face her. "What? Why take Robin to your room, Raven?"

"Because my room has thicker curtains to keep the sun out, plus at least he'll have a bed to rest on," replied Raven calmly.

"Why would your curtains be thicker than the ones in Robin's room matter?" snapped Starfire.

Raven glared at her friend. "There's a good reason, Starfire! If what that stranger said was true then any exposure to sunlight will _kill_ him!"

Starfire was rendered speechless by Raven's outburst. It was rare for her friend to unleash her emotions as she did…at least until after she calmed down from her breakup with Beast Boy. But she still wasn't sure what putting Robin in her room would accomplish. She stared to open her mouth…but Raven's eye glowed faintly red.

"Okay! I'll help you!" quivered Starfire, smiling nervously. She landed next to them and picked up Robin, forgetting or not caring that she was getting more blood all over her.

Raven and herself quickly entered the tower and down to the Living Quarters. Starfire carried Robin to Raven's door, but as she was about to open it, Raven suddenly pulled Robin out of her arms with her powers and opened the door herself.

"Raven? What are you doing?" asked a confused Starfire.

"…I'll handle it from here," replied Raven simply and levitated Robin into her room. "I need to check something before anyone else sees Robin."

"But, Raven…!"

Raven slammed the door closed on her redheaded friend. She had no fear of Starfire breaking in…she knew that would spell her doom if she so much as dented her door…again. She quickly moved Robin to her bed, taking off her blood-stained cloak, revealing a black leotard with fish-netting connecting to her gloves, and her thigh-high black boots, and her yellow, red gem belt. It was when she threw her cloak in the wash-bin that she remembered the blood all over Robin. Leaving him floating in the air, she went to her private bathroom and retrieved a few wet wash-clothes. She then removed Robin's clothes, trying to keep from blushing as she did; thankfully, the boxers he wore underneath weren't soaked in blood. She inspected the clothes and found them beyond repair and threw them in her trash-bin. Next, she used her telekinesis to use all her wet wash-clothes to clean the blood off his body, only looking at him out of the corner of her eye to make sure she got it all. Once he was cleaned, she laid him on the bed and covered him up with her sheets.

It was then that she spotted that she hadn't gotten all the blood off him. There was still a spot on his face that she missed when she was cleaning him. She got another wet wash-cloth and returned to Robin, sitting down next to him as she wiped the wash-cloth on Robin's face. As she did, she brushed a stray lock of long black hair off his face, admiring secretly how handsome he looked with long hair. Her moment was instantly switched to depression…

"…I'm sorry, Robin," whispered Raven to him. "I should have gone with you when you chased after Madame Rouge." She bent down and cupped his cheek in her right hand. "Please…whatever you're going through; please come back to us…" She gazed back to her door where she left Starfire at, then returned them back down to her leader, her secret savior. "…to me."

She stroked his cheek softly and sat back up, moving her hand to his chest, feeling for his heart-beat…but there was none, she kept it there for a few more moments, praying and soon enough, she felt a faint beat. She waited for a few more moments and felt another beat, just as faint. She sighed in relief and tucked the sheets up to his neck. She reached out with her mind, probing Robin's for any sign of his soul still intact. What she found was a dark glow, like the soft glow of a candle…it felt like Robin's soul, but it felt different…faint and distant, though, at the same time…comforting. So it was true what the stranger said…Robin had changed. She quickly made up her mind on what to do.

"Whatever happens, Robin…I'll be here for you, like you were all those times for me," vowed Raven, sitting up from the bed. Sighing, she left Robin to rest. _Better go and tell Starfire he'll be fine or she'll be a wreck all day…_

She retrieved a clean cloak and went to her door, quickly exiting and setting the locks before Starfire could storm in and see Robin. As she left the room, a pair of red eyes opened from a shadow in the corner of her room. The shadow slowly pulled away from the corner and moved to the bed. It hovered over Robin and a Cheshire white smile formed just under the red eyes. A slender tendril appeared from the shadow and formed into an arm and ended with a normal-looking hand. Soon enough, the shadow faded and the stranger appeared sitting on the bed.

"…Be strong my child," said the stranger, placing a hand on Robin's chest, a spark of dark light flashed under his palm and entered Robin and smiled. "You will be in for a hard trail, Robin…Be strong." He ran a finger gently over the make-shift eye-patch he made for Robin, and then he disappeared slowly into the shadows as he had entered, anxiously waiting for tomorrow night to approach.

--

A/N: I hope everyone liked this newer installment. Please, review and let me know your thoughts. Tell then…later.


	3. Requiem of Truth

Disclaimer: I don't own or claim any rights to Teen Titans. They are the rightful property of Cartoon Network and DC Comics. Rightful, and only claim, is to the plot and the following OCs: Sin.

A/N: Thanks again for the positive feedback on the last chapter. It's really encouraging me to keep writing this new version. Speaking of versions, I've had people ask me about the old version and wishing me re-read them again. I'm stating this now and only once, I will not be re-posting them on or give them out, but I will be posting them on my proboards site. The link is on my profile for anyone who wishes to check it out.

--

**Requiem of Truth**

Raven had not even gotten a foot away from her door when she had to step back in front of it, blocking Starfire from trying to enter her room.

"Friend Raven, I must see to Robin. Please let me in!" pleaded Starfire.

"I can't let you, Starfire…not until we're positive of Robin's condition," replied Raven tiredly.

The redhead's response was her glowing eyes. But just as they blazed in anger, they quickly dimmed down to her normal green. "…Please, Raven. I just need to see him once more…just so my last memory of him isn't one full of blood."

Raven sighed and lowered her face to gaze at the floor. "I just can't, Star. I wouldn't do this if I was sure it was safe…but the method of Robin's recovery leaves me to believe he may become a danger if he awakes."

"Raven…Just what is going on?" pleaded Starfire, looking on the verge of tears.

Raven took her alien friend's arm and slowly guided her away from her room and down the hallway, hugging her arm to try and comfort her, knowing that physical contact was always the best method to calm her.

"Starfire…remember those monster movies that…Beast Boy…used to make us watch during our annual Halloween movie-fest?" inquired Raven, trying to keep her voice neutral when she mentioned the changeling's name.

The redhead nodded. "Yes, but what does that have to do with what's going on?"

"…I will explain that part soon," assured Raven. "Remember that last movie we watched last Halloween? Remember the 'creature' that it was based off of?"

"…Yes, it was called Bram Stoker's Dracula…and the creature was called…" Starfire faltered for a moment, trying to recall the name of the monster, then finally it registered. "….a vampire, right?"

"Correct," confirmed Raven, nodding softly, waiting for her redheaded friend to understand.

It didn't take long.

Starfire halted and turned to fully face her cloaked friend. "Are you saying that the man that claimed to have saved Robin is….is a vampire?!"

"All the clues lead to me to believe that, yes, that man that helped us was indeed a vampire," replied Raven seriously. "And I think…he turned Robin into one."

Her assumption was followed by an ear-piercing shriek from her alien friend that she hadn't heard her make since they were young teenagers. The shriek was so loud that Raven had no doubt that the tower shook from it…

"We must do everything we can to cure him!" cried Starfire once she was over shrieking, floating up off the floor and inadvertently dragged Raven up with her and started heading back to Raven's room, only to be stopped in mid-air by Raven's telekinesis when she stabled herself in Starfire's grip.

"Starfire, I said we are going to leave him alone," said a stern Raven, eyes blazing white as she separated herself from her friend gently and floated next to her in the air.

"But he's changing into a monster! We must find a cure before it's too late!" pleaded Starfire, not understanding why her friend was stopping her.

Raven shook her head sadly. "…He isn't turning, Star…he's already changed. There is no known cure for vampirism…"

Starfire wasn't going to give up that easily. "We've found solutions to impossible situations before! I'm confident that we will cure Robin of his vampirism!"

Again, Raven shook her head. "It isn't possible, Starfire…Vampirism is incurable…save for one way."

"I'll do it! I'll do whatever it is to fix this!" declared Starfire.

Raven locked her eyes angrily. "The only way is to kill him, Starfire!"

Starfire immediately paled, or in her case, her skin took on a light orange complexion. "…How is that saving him?!"

"It's complicated, Starfire…" replied Raven sadly, knowing all too well why, but she had to give her teammate at least some kind of an answer. "Vampires are believed to be unholy monsters that feed on the life-force of the living, mainly by the method of consuming human blood. Some also are accused of feeding on the life-energy of humans by absorbing it into themselves." Seeing her friend's confused expression on that last part, she sighed again and continued. "It's like how your people are able to absorb solar energy from the sun…but for vampires it's other living-beings life-force." She lowered her friend to the floor and let go of her hold on her. "Because of this, vampires are hunted and killed because of the danger they pose to humans…hence why they are killed. It isn't the vampire that's really saved; it's the people that the vampire might kill that are saved."

"That's….so heartless," whispered an even paler Starfire.

"Its fact, Starfire," stated Raven bluntly, keeping her eyes cold and hard. "Vampires are considered evil by nature and will kill the living to continue their unnatural lifespan. That is why they are killed, Starfire. That is why I don't want you near Robin in case what that stranger said isn't completely true. Robin might not mean to but his _nature_ might force him to hurt anyone close to him."

Starfire was beginning to cry again, falling to her knees and sobbing heavily. "No…Please, X'Hal, this cannot be true."

Raven kneeled down before her friend and pulled her into her arms, hoping the action will ease her friend's pain. Starfire, upon feeling Raven's arms, reached and wrapped her arms around her, laying her face on Raven's cloaked chest and sobbed away sadly.

Raven cradled Starfire in her arms, padding her softly on the back. "It might not be as bad as we think, Starfire…"

Starfire stared up at Raven in bewilderment. "How can you say that; after what you've just claimed Robin to have become?"

"What I know about vampires could just be myth. No one really knows that much about vampires other than they drink blood, have fangs…and as that stranger had cleared…can't withstand sunlight," stated Raven. "But that's just a condition, that doesn't mean that Robin will change from the person we both know, Starfire. We both know him too well to know nothing can change who he is…not even this."

"Do you believe so?" whimpered Starfire, hoping with all her heart that she was right.

"I do," said Raven firmly, wishing to elaborate more why she was so sure. In truth, she was selfish about keeping the bond she had between herself and Robin…it was all she had. She quickly chose to change the topic. "Come on, Starfire. We can't do anything right now except hope that Robin is fine. We got to keep strong if he might need us."

Starfire wiped her tears away and nodded her agreement. "You are right, Raven. We must stay strong for Robin."

Raven and Starfire stood up. As they did, Raven's T-Com went off. Quickly, she pulled it out and hit the receive button. "Raven, here."

"Raven? What's happened to Robin? Is he okay?" came Cyborg's worried voice from her T-Com.

"Robin's….stable at the moment, Cyborg," replied Raven, frowning now. "I'll explain what happened when you and…" She tried to keep her face from snarling, but she just couldn't. "…When you both get here. Raven, out…"

She quickly put her T-Com away and once again had her cold exterior ruling her face. "Let's wait for them in the common room."

Starfire agreed. She was all too familiar that when Raven was like this that it was best to just go with the flow of things, no matter how much she was worried for her dark friend, she know it would only push her away from her if she tried to assure her that things would be better. And from the recent attitude that Beast Boy had taken on, she wasn't too sure herself that things could be repaired between the two. Whatever was the issue between two was, she believe that it would be resolved and they could salvage their relationship…or so she hoped.

They went straight to the common room in eerie silence and waited for the rest of their teammates. Once they returned, Raven informed them of everything that happened and her suspicions. Their reactions were exactly as she expected from the two, more so from Beast Boy, as he had a look of total amusement.

"Yeah, right. Robin is a vampire. Do I look like the young, naïve Beast Boy who first joined this team?" chuckled Beast Boy, trying to keep from laughing harder.

"No, you look more like an arrogant, close-minded jerk," snarled Raven sharply, glaring at him unfriendly.

"Please, you've got to be kidding, Rae-baby! A vampire just shows up and turns Robin into a vampire? Even I find that story hard to believe," snapped Beast Boy, glaring just as unfriendly as she was now.

"Never…call…me…that!" growled Raven threateningly, cracking two windows as her anger rose.

Cyborg stepped in between the two and glared at them both sternly. "Knock it off you two! This is not the time for this! We've got a major problem on our hands and we need to keep our focus on that." He gave them both a sterner look before he continued. "Robin needs us right now more than whatever issues you two have…we gotta do what we can for him right now." He softened his face when he looked at Raven. "This is hard to take, Raven, but are you positive that this guy that helped out turned Robin into a vampire?"

Raven just stared back at him blankly, having now managed to calm herself and control her face. "I am."

Cyborg groaned and rubbed his bald head. "Man, as if things weren't weird enough for us. Now we got vampires to deal with?" He let his head hang and sighed. "I'll need to run some tests on Robin's blood. Maybe there's still a way to cure this before it takes a hold on him."

"Impossible," said Raven coldly.

Cyborg narrowed his normal eye at her in puzzlement. "How can you say that, Rae?"

"Because it's not just his body that's changing, Cyborg," replied Raven. "It's his spirit that's also being affected. That's why he's in a hibernating state. Until his spirit has adapted to the change he won't wake up...and if we start tampering with him while he's in this fragile state, we might be doing more harm than good. There is a strong possibility that we could sever his spirit's link from his body…and end up killing him ourselves."

Cyborg swore under his breath. "Then what can we do?"

Raven wasn't happy about this situation as them either, but the danger was too great for them to do anything at the moment, except…

"We will wait until tonight for that man to return," informed Raven to her team.

"What?! He's the one that's turned Robin into a bloodsucking monster!" yelled Beast Boy.

A cold stare from Raven and Cyborg quickly silenced him.

"I have to agree with Beast Boy, my friends. What if this man really has ill-intent for Robin?" added Starfire.

"If he did, he'd have taken Robin with him," answered Raven.

"…Or he left him here to drain us dry when he wakes up," grumbled Beast Boy.

Starfire approached Beast Boy. "Robin would never do such an act!"

"Instincts are hard to control, Starfire," said an oddly serious Beast Boy. "…Especially if you weren't born with them. Robin might now be able to control himself, even if he doesn't want to, but he might not be able to help himself."

Everyone stared at Beast Boy. It wasn't often that he said something smart, but when he did, it usually was right on the mark. He just shrugged their looks and looked away.

"I don't like even considering this…but we might have to consider that he will turn on us and start hurting people," added Beast Boy sadly. "Robin would want us to at least take precautions incase he does become a threat."

Cyborg nodded sadly. "You're right, BB. We need to take every precaution we can…I'll contact the Justice League."

Raven stepped up to him. "No! We can't!"

Cyborg was once again surprised by her. "Rae? Why not? They'd know better how to handle this kind of stuff. I mean, yeah, we've saved the universe and all…but they've got better experts on the preternatural than we do. No offense, Rae."

Raven just replied with a stern look. "Even they might mess something up and we'll lose Robin. And what's more, they may think he's too dangerous before he can prove he isn't…do you really want to see him locked up and kept away from all of us out of a fear that could be false?"

"I don't know what to do!" cried Cyborg, falling heavily on the couch and resting his face in his hands. "All I know is that we gotta help Robin out! Sitting here and waiting for some creep who did this to him to return is gonna be risking a lot, Rae…" He looked up at her, letting his tiredness show on his face. "I just can't sit by idly and wait."

Raven walked over to him and placed a sympathetic hand on his metallic shoulder. "I understand, Cy…but we can't interfere right now. When I examined Robin, his spirit wasn't entirely in his body…it was still there…but like most of it was pull to another place, another realm. I can't explain it any better than that, but if we make the slightest mistake, what link he has to his body will break and he won't be able to return to us. And we're Titans, we'll figure out how to help out Robin once we get more information."

"All right, Rae. I know you wouldn't suggest that unless you were positive," replied Cyborg tiredly. "I just…I feel I should be doing something for him."

"We all feel that way," reminded Raven. "…We can only make sure that we keep an eye on Robin and make sure he's fine, or hurt anyone if he does wake up and becomes a threat. Better us his friends than the Justice League."

Cyborg grimaced and nodded his bald head. "Yeah…at least let's get some more help here in the tower. I'll call the other Titans and see who is available."

Raven agreed to that. "While you call the others, I'm going to see if any of my books might have on vampires."

"You seriously have books on real vampires?" smirked Beast Boy, looking at her with a funny expression.

Raven ignored his look and levitated off. "There could be some useful information on how to deal with not just Robin…but in case we might have to confront that stranger."

Beast Boy had the decency to look embarrassed. "Oh, right…Forgot about the bloodsucker that caused all this."

For some reason that remark made Raven angry, but she ignored it. Lately, everything that the green changeling said would make her mad, just anything. Choosing to forget him his attitude for now, she floated back to her room, locking it once she was in and proceeded to search for one of her ancient texts that might shed some light on how to fix all this, or at the very least keep things from going the wrong way, while at the same time trying to keep from looking at the slumbering hero currently on her _bed_.

Doing her best to ignore that fact, she rummaged through her books in hopes of finding anything of help. After about an hour of looking…she came up with nothing except what she already knew from modern research on vampires, most of which she couldn't be sure could actually be true, or could actually hurt a vampire as some of the methods of stopping a vampire were too ridiculous to take seriously…then again in their line of work, nothing could be taken lightly. Any information could be vital if it turned out this stranger was indeed up to no good.

She had just put one book back on her shelf and reached for the next when she felt something brush against her leg. Not expecting the sudden contact, she jumped in fright and glared down, eyes blazing white and promising pain to whatever touched her. But her fury was quickly gone when she looked down to find a cat sitting patiently on the ground where she once stood, slightly flicking its tail from side-to-side behind it before curling it around its feet. At first she was about to scream at it, thinking it was Beast Boy trying to mess with her, but she quickly noticed that this cat's fur was totally black inside of green and it's eyes were silver.

"Umm, where'd you come from?" asked Raven, looking puzzled at the black cat, wondering how it could have gotten into her room or into the tower for that matter.

The cat meowed lightly and took off toward the bed. She watched it leap onto the bed and curl up next to Robin and started to purr lightly. Before it settled down to take a nap, it looked up at her and meowed once more. Raven cautiously went over to her bed, completely perplexed, and looked down at the cat. It began purring louder as she did and looked at her patiently for her to do something.

"How did you get in here?" asked Raven, feeling awkward for talking to a cat that wandered into her room.

The cat just meowed at her and tucked its head in and looked as if going to sleep.

Strangely, Raven found the cat adorable sleeping on her covers next to Robin. Were she not so curious about the cat suddenly appearing in her room, she'd have left the serene scene alone, but things were getting stranger by the minute for her. She started to reach out for the cat when she felt a presence. Her eye flashed white as she summoned up her powers and readied her words when she turned around to see the stranger leaning against a wall.

"You!" snapped Raven, glaring at the stranger. "I thought you said you weren't going to show back up until tomorrow night!"

"I am…or rather, the real me will," replied the stranger, grinning at her fiendishly.

"The real you…?" murmured Raven in confusion.

The stranger, or what looked like the stranger, chuckled and pushed itself off the wall, but keeping in the shadows of her room. "I'm just a shadow made to look like the man who helped you out. He sent me to make sure you didn't do anything foolish to Robin while he sleeps."

"What would you have done had we done something?" questioned Raven, keeping herself alert.

The copy grinned just like its creator. "Even as a shadow, I have ways to protect Robin if they are needed."

"Fine, whatever…why are you showing yourself to me?" asked Raven.

"He figured you'd have some questions that couldn't wait till he returned, but I can't answer all of them. My knowledge is limited as I'm just a shadow," said the copy honestly. "But I was instructed to answer what I can."

Raven pondered over what to ask this shadow. She was familiar with spells that allowed people to create temporary copies of themselves for various uses. If this stranger was still able to cast a spell to make a copy of himself even in his weakened state, she had no doubt he would be very hard to defeat if it came down to fighting him.

The copy must have had a way to detect reactions from real people, because it started chuckling like its creator and approached her. "You'd be wise to be cautious of him, Raven, but he isn't a threat to any of you. All he's interested in is Robin's well-being."

"Why is your caster so interested in Robin?" asked Raven.

The shadow halt and what could be seen of its face became blank. "I'm unable to answer that question, my knowledge is limited."

Raven frowned. It was an automatic response for any copy when asked a question it doesn't understand. She had to chose her words wisely if she going to get any information of it.

"All right, why did he save Robin?" asked Raven.

"He wanted to," replied the shadow simply.

"Any reasons as to why he did?" groaned Raven, glaring at the shadow.

"Robin was dying, he did the only thing he could to save him," replied the shadow.

Raven frowned in irritation. "He said that already. Why was he at the military base?"

"To watch Robin's progress. He wanted to see if Robin was nearly ready before offering him the Embrace," replied the shadow.

"The Embrace?" repeated Raven, raising a curious eyebrow.

"The term vampires use to change a human into a vampire," answered the shadow. "It is a physically and mentally demanding process for both the vampire and the human being embraced."

"So all that blood on the rooftop was both his and Robin's?" inquired Raven.

"Correct," replied the shadow.

"Does he plan on taking Robin away from us?" asked Raven, very worried that the vampire would.

"No," replied the shadow instantly. "He has no wishes to part Robin from his team so long as no one learns that he has become a vampire."

"That's going to be difficult when people start wondering why he isn't out and about during the day!" snapped Raven.

"I'm unable to answer that question, my knowledge is limited," said the shadow blankly.

"You're no help…" grumbled Raven, the sound of soft purring brought her attention back to the black cat currently sleeping on her bed. "Can you tell me anything about why there's a cat in my room?"

The shadow walked over to the bed, it was then that Raven noticed that it had no feet, only wisps of darkness emitting from his legs, and stroked the cat's back, resulting in louder purring. "His name is Sparda. He's a companion of my caster. He left him here to bring some comfort to Robin during this change." The shadow moved his hand to stroke under Sparda's chin. "…He always wanted to see a child of his own playing with a pet."

Raven stared at the shadow. "…That doesn't make much sense."

"To vampires…turning someone is considered giving birth in human terms," replied the shadow, looking back at her. "My caster is in his kind's view the parent, as he was the one who embraced Robin into this new life."

"Unlife you mean," corrected Raven.

The shadow shrugged. "Life has many different natures, not all of them follow the same principles."

"Pretty philological for a shadow," quipped Raven, narrowing her eyes at the copy.

"My castor always installs some of his philological ideals so that I may pass more like himself when in a critical situation," replied the shadow in a bored manner.

"Okay…" murmured Raven, working over some suspicions she had of this shadow. "Then tell me…what would happen if we tried to cure Robin of his vampirism?"

"You would never be able to," replied the shadow instantly. "Vampirism a permanent state. Hence why my caster was waiting for Robin to be ready before offering his Embrace to him. Once one is embraced…there is no way to return. They must continue their dark path until they are giving true death."

"So I was right…" whispered Raven sadly. "If we tried anything right now…it would just kill him?"

"Correct," confirmed the shadow bluntly.

Raven felt her body become instantly heavy, knowing by instinct that this shadow was telling her the truth. That truth just proved too much for her and her body was letting her know it as her mind finally submitted to it. She nearly fell to her floor when the shadow was instantly behind her and caught her and sat her gently down on the floor.

"Thank you…" whispered Raven tiredly.

"Thank my caster when you meet him tonight," said the shadow, letting go of her and returning to Robin's side. "He also installed his own mannerisms into me before he left. He would have done the same had he been here."

"I'll remember that," replied Raven, straightening herself and positioning herself on the floor so she was now sitting in her meditative pose.

She let the information work through her mind for a minute, pondering what questions to ask the shadow. The shadow in turn waited patiently in silence, as if it knew she needed some time to work out her thoughts.

Soon, she came cleared her mind enough to ask one very important question. "…Does your caster plan to have Robin harm humans?"

"If that can be avoided, then no," replied the shadow. "My caster has no desire to my limited knowledge to let Robin become what you humans consider…proper behavior for bloodsucking demons."

Even though the shadow was just a reflection of the stranger, she could detect that the venom in its words in that last statement.

"But vampires aren't, are they?" questioned Raven.

"Vampires still retain their emotions and behavior from their former human selves," answered the shadow. "They can be demons as they're accused, or they can be interesting beings to be acquainted to."

"How so?" asked Raven, genuinely curious.

"I'm unable to answer that question, my knowledge is limited," said the shadow blankly again.

Raven sighed and rubbed the side of her temple as she felt an approaching headache. "Fine, whatever. Can you tell me more about the man that placed you here?"

"I'm unable to answer that question, my knowledge is limited, repeated the shadow.

Raven groaned as her headache began to grow more.

The shadow looked up instantly at the door at that moment. "I must keep myself from being detected. I must hide before your companions discover I am here." His form dispersed, leaving behind a smoky dark substance before it slithered back into the shadows of her room.

Before Raven could react to that, a knock came from her door. "Raven! It's me, Argent! I came as soon as I got Cyborg's call!"

A look of relief washed briefly over Raven's blank eyes. She sat herself up and went to her door, opening it and stepping out into the hallway, closing and locking her door behind her. She then turned to greet a silver-skinned young woman with black hair with two red bangs hanging on either side of her matured, attractive face. Her red eyes shined with a mischievous gleam in them, and her petite small lips were edged with a playful smile. Like most of the other Titans, Argent had changed her costume to fit her more matured body. She still wore her black corset and red skirt, only the corset was redone to hold a large bust, leaving little to the imagination and her red skirt was spikier and tripled layered. She had replaced her black elbow-length glows with fishnet ones, having spiked bracelets where the fishnet ended and short black, fingerless gloves protected her hands. More fishnet covered her well-defined legs down to the black combat-boots with red lining around the ankles.

The plasma-wielder smirked at her Goth friend in a cheerful manner, resting her hands idly on her curvy hips. "I never knew you'd be that kinky to actually lock up Robin in your room, Raven!" she chuckled some, then laughed more when she saw Raven pull her hood over her head. "I knew it was only a matter of time!"

"It isn't like that, Argent…" grumbled Raven, trying to keep her friend from seeing the growing blush on her pale cheeks. "Did Cyborg inform you of the situation?"

"He said that Robin was banged up badly by that psycho-nut, Rouge," replied Argent, looking concerned.

At one point Argent had confessed to Raven when that hanged out that she had crush on the Boy Wonder, but like Raven, she never tried to purse him on account of Starfire's overwhelming affections for him. It wasn't odd to see the silver-skinned girl look worried for the Titan leader when he got hurt.

"There's more to it, Argent," said Raven, sighing tiredly. "Robin was…in a way…killed just a few hours ago."

The silver-skinned woman paled as white as a sheet. "…Killed? But…isn't Robin in your room now?" Argent then narrowed one eye at Raven as the eyebrow over her other eye slowly rose up. "And what do you mean 'in a way'?"

"Exactly as I said it," replied Raven bluntly. "Madame Rouge caused fatal damage to Robin's body…but just as he was dying, we had some unexpected help from someone."

"Why do I get the sudden feeling it's more complicated," remarked Argent, now crossing her arms under her chest.

"As a result of this person's aid…he altered Robin's status to a...undead vampire," finished Raven.

The look Argent gave Raven was total disbelief and amazement; expressed with wide eyes and a jaw nearly touching the floor. She quickly got a hold of her expression, shaking it clear and just stared at Raven.

"…You're saying that some bloke, who turned out to be a vampire, helped out by turning Robin into a vampire?" declared Argent breathlessly.

Raven could only nod.

What she didn't expect was to see her British friend suddenly smile so widely and cheer. "I KNEW IT!! I know vampires were real!"

Raven just looked dumbstruck at her. "Aren't you in the least bit concerned that Robin is no longer human?"

Argent abolished her reaction, bowing her head slightly as she rubbed the back of her neck to hide her embarrassment. "Of course I'm concerned for Robin, Rae, you know that…It's just…well, I've always believed that vampires were real and now you tell me Robin is one? That was just too much for me to contain!"

"…I'm glad you are able to express it," drawled Raven in a slight sarcastic manner.

Argent looked up at her friend, her eyes swimming with deeper concern. "I'm sorry, Rae…I didn't…"

Raven stopped her with waving her hand once. "It's fine, Argent…it's just been a trialing time for me tonight…Dealing with…that green elf…then the Brotherhood teaming up with Slade…and now Robin is turned into a vampire by some unknown man…if calling him a man is the proper term for him."

Argent instantly had a look of anger when Raven mentioned Beast Boy. "Is that green-stained wanker still giving you problems, Rae?"

"Yeah…he still is acting like a jerk," admitted Raven, leaning her back against her door, gazing down at the floor.

Her vision was suddenly filled with the image of Argent's matured bust as her friend moved in to place her arms affectionately around her neck. "It's a good thing I was coming over here to visit you before Cyborg called me…Rae-love."

Raven darted her eyes up and down the hallway before she rose her hands and placed them on her 'friend's' hips. "It's been getting hard to deal with him, Argent…" She leaned her head down on Argent's shoulder, letting down her guard just enough to enjoy the affection Argent was offering her.

Argent stepped in closer, pressing her frame slightly against Raven's, pulling down her hood so she could gaze her ruby eyes into lavender ones. "…You know I'm here for you, Rae-love…"

Raven, again caught herself looking to see if anyone might catch them, pulled Argent closer to her. "You…and Robin…have helped me more than anyone ever has…more than that jerk Beast Boy ever would try to do."

Argent kissed Raven's hair, resting her cheek against her head. "That's because he's got a stick longer and thicker than Big Ben stuck up his arse." Argent smiled and moved her mouth to Raven's ear. "I'm guessing you won't be using your room much today…wanna bunk with me?"

Raven simply nodded, wanting some closeness that she could never get from anyone else. "That would be helpful. But I'm a little too tired for anything else…"

Argent pulled her head away enough for Raven to see her understanding expression. "If you wanna cuddle, that's what we'll do!"

Raven rewarded her with a rare smile, which quickly faded when she sensed someone approaching. She quickly pushed Argent away from her, who understood why she would do that and quickly took a carefree posture. They looked down the hallway in time to see Cyborg walking over to them.

"Have you told her about Robin?" asked Cyborg.

"Yes, I've informed her about Robin's current state," replied Raven in her monotone, empty voice.

"Good. I gotta hold of Hot Spot, Herald, Kid Flash, and Jinx. They'll be here in a few to help out in case we need it. I've also got Titans East, Red Star, and Wonder Girl on stand-by in case we need the extra muscle," informed Cyborg.

"That should be enough help," added Raven. "Umm, we might want to clean the roof before the others come or before some news helicopter flies over us unexpectedly and reports the blood to the whole city."

Cyborg smirked at her evilly. "I already got Beast Boy on that. He'll have that roof cleaned…or I'll throw all his tofu in that mess."

They all chuckled, even Raven to a short extent. They all knew too well that Beast Boy hated the sight or smell of blood.

"Good one, Cy!" cheered Argent.

"Yeah, that'll keep him outta your hair for a while Raven," said Cyborg.

"I appreciate it, Cy…" replied Raven, briefly flicking her eyes toward Argent.

The cybernetic Titan caught that action. He wasn't sure what it really was implied, but he had seen her give those brief looks at Argent whenever she came to visit or help out them…which she had been doing more and more lately. He was naturally curious and wanted to know if there was more going on between Raven and Argent, but after her emotional break-up with Beast Boy and the fact that she had been showing some signs of recovery since Argent started hanging out with her more, he was satisfied with just knowing Argent was helping her where he couldn't…

"Well, I better get my metal butt back to my room. I'm almost out of power," said Cyborg quickly, smiling at the two of them. "I'll see ya when I'm done recharging! Night!"

The two waited until Cyborg had left and went inside his room, watching him wave at them one more time before he closed his door. They waited another minute to be sure that he was going to stay in his room, then Argent wrapped her arm around Raven's waist and started leading her to the guest room Argent always used when she visited the tower. Argent quickly closed and locked the door behind her once she they entered and led Raven straight to the bed. Raven was too emotionally and physically tired to care where she was being led to, but smiled once more when Argent laid them both down on the bed, kicking her boots off and then pulling the covers over them. Raven snuggled close to Argent, resting her forehead against the silver-skinned girls offered shoulder. Argent wrapped her arms around Raven and stroked her long hair until she heard soft breathing as Raven drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Argent continued holding her throughout the rest of the night in this fashion, even when she fell asleep herself she held onto Raven protectively all night and onto morning.

By mid-day, Raven awoke up and gently worked herself out of her friend's arms to leave her to rest. She then spent the next two hours meditating in the middle of the room, finding herself more refreshed now that Argent was here and silently thanking Azar that Robin was still with them, even if he may no longer be the same Robin she once knew. But no matter what happened, she would be there for Robin and would do everything in her power, as would all of them, to help him.

At that point, Argent woke up and the two went to the kitchen to fix themselves something to eat. They quickly found Starfire sleeping at Raven's door, curled up against it and hugging her legs to her chest. From her state, she had probably been there all night; she hadn't taken the time to change out of her blood-stained clothes or brushed her mangled hair. They woke her and informed of her state. She blushed in embarrassment and proceeded to her room to clean herself up.

In the kitchen, they found Herald and Hot Spot talking to Cyborg. Kid Flash was speeding around them as he fixed himself and Jinx some food. They all had the same costumes, only changed to accommodate their developed bodies.

Upon seeing her two friends, Jinx waved them over to the table. "Kid! Can you make Raven and Argent some tea?"

"Sure then, babe!" responded Kid Flash and he immediately got the kettle out of the cupboard and proceeded to fixing the tea.

"Oy, you've got him trained, Jinx!" smirked Argent.

"Hey, we girls gotta keep our men on track, don't we?" replied Jinx, smirking impishly at her boyfriend, who paused long enough to fake a sigh in front of them before zooming back to work.

They all giggled, save for Raven who just smirked, at his expense. The good mood was gone when Beast Boy came into the kitchen, grumbling loudly as he ignored everyone and started on fixing himself some tofu. Everyone just ignored him and went back to what they were doing. Cyborg informed Raven that he brought the others up to speed and that along with himself, Beast Boy, and the others will be patrolling the city. He said that Starfire wasn't in any condition to part herself from Robin and he wanted Raven to stay incase Robin woke up before the stranger returned. Argent volunteered to stay with them, saying that they might need some extra help if Robin was to go postal on everyone.

It turned out for them to be one of their rare calm days. None of their usual enemies showed up to cause problems for anyone, the criminals were minimal enough for the police to handle, leaving the Titans to the torture of waiting for night to fall…

When dusk clouded the sky, they got an alarm that Overload was ransacking another electronic store.

"You sure that you can handle that guy, Raven?" asked a very worried Cyborg on his T-Com as he and the others left the tower to deal with Overload.

Raven nodded. "If anything funny happens, we'll let you know." As she put her T-Com away she looked around and found Starfire wasn't present with her and Argent. "Where's Starfire?"

Argent rolled her eyes. "Back where we found her earlier today."

Raven groaned, running down her face in irritation. "Let's go talk to her before that vampire shows up…"

As Argent had claimed, they found Starfire sitting with her back against her door, holding her legs in her arms, resting her chin in thought on one knee.

"Star, we talked about this. No one is to be near Robin until that vampire returns," said Raven upon approaching her and kneeling down before he redheaded friend.

"I just can't stay far away from him, Raven…" pleaded Starfire, looking up with tear-stained eyes.

Raven groaned inwardly, wondering how Robin put up with her neediness and closeness all the time. "Look, you've been here almost all day. Let's go wait for the vampire in the common room."

"I will once Robin awakens…" argued Starfire stubbornly.

"I would advise against that, Princess…" said a dark, snickering voice from out of nowhere.

Starfire 'eeped' and stared in fright over Raven's shoulder. The empath slowly turned her head and stared in fright as well at the vampire whose grinning face was just inches from hers.

"Boo…" whispered the vampire.

All three Titan girls, who have faced countless enemies, survived the most bizarre challenge…all clung together and shrieked their lungs out.

The vampire was sent back laughing and holding his hands over his ears. "Owww! Hehehehehehe! Come on! You'll wake the dead with screams like that…oh, wait, that's exactly what we're waiting on, isn't it?" He chuckled darkly at them.

His statement brought them out of their moment of fright and back to their senses.

"So you finally showed up!" snapped Raven, disgruntled that she acted like a scared little schoolgirl.

"I'm a man of my word," replied the vampire, removing his hands from his ears and grinning devilish at them.

"If you can be still considered a man," retorted Raven, glaring at him now.

The vampire clutched at his chest, as if he just received a stab to the heart, mocking a fake look of hurt. "Ouch, that really hurt!"

Raven just continued to glare at him, not at all amused by his antics.

The vampire replaced his mocking look with his grinning one and moved his hands down to his pants, hooking his thumbs in them, inadvertently pushing his jacket behind him to expose his bare abdomen and torso. Raven found herself bringing her eyes down to stare at those toned muscles on the vampire's chest, blushing as she did.

She immediately averted her eyes away from him and cleared her throat. "…So what is going to happen next?"

The vampire shrugged. "Depends on when Robin awakens. It could be now, later…before dawn. Who knows?"

Starfire stepped toward him, pointing an accusing finger at his grinning face. "You said that Robin would awaken when you returned!"

He brushed her hand away from his face, still grinning devilishly at her. "I never said he'd wake up just by my return. I said I'd come back to help him with his change. I can't wake him up until he's ready to wake himself up."

"How long until he could be ready?" asked Raven worriedly.

He removed his right hand from the rim of his pants and raised it up to his face, then deliberately slow…he removed his sunglasses, letting them all see his crimson eyes. "That will depend entirely on Robin…my dear."

He brought those dangerous eyes down on Raven, locking them on hers and she could feel the power behind his gaze. It reached out and she could feel it stroke something deep in her mind, like the gentle, almost too intimate stroke in her mind. Instantly her mental barriers flared up and she strained to push his power out of her. The vampire widened his grin and lowered his eyes, putting his sunglasses back on, leaning down again within an inch of her face.

"Hmm, you were able to deflect me from rolling you into my power," said the vampire excitedly. "Not many can do that…and not one as young…" he parted his lips ever-so slightly and licked his lips. "…So attractive looking."

The lights above them suddenly exploded, showering them with harmless sparks.

The vampire leaned back up and chuckled in amusement at the situation. "Hmm, that's interesting…"

Starfire lit her left fist with a starbolt to illuminate the hallway. When she did, she found Raven pulling her hood completely over her face, Argent wide-eyed at the vampire, and said vampire still grinning that evil way.

"Raven! Are you okay?" asked Starfire, voice full of concern.

A muffled replied came from her, shaking all over as she tried to ruin in her emotions.

"And that means, I'm not attractive," translated the vampire, then smirking evilly. "Yeah, I used the wrong word. I meant to say beautiful goddess of the night."

The ceiling began to shake as it started twisting and rolling, sending more sparks through the broken lights. Argent stormed right up to him and poked his chest, glaring all the way…until she touched cold flesh…soft…firm, cold flesh. What rage she was about to lash him with cooled, leaving her flabbergasted.

"Er…d-don't keep doing that," stuttered Argent.

"Why not?" questioned the vampire smugly.

"Because Raven's emotions are dangerous. Whenever she experiences one…they tend to affect her powers and cause them to destroy something," remarked Starfire plainly.

Raven raised her hood and glared coldly at her. "…Just tell the whole world, why don't you?"

The vampire ignored Starfire, idly tapping his chin with his fingers as he looked down at Raven. Even with the sunglasses on Raven could still feel the weight of his gaze, making her fidget where she stood and unconsciously raise a hand up to twirl a lock of her hair; a strange habit she developed when she finally let her hair stay long. The vampire's head shift just barely to the side, indicating that his eyes were looking at the hand that was now twirling a lock.

He tilted his head as his grin slowly faded down to thin out. "Intriguing habit you have."

Raven stared blankly at him in confusion. "…W-What habit?"

He slowly reached out and wrapped a long, white finger around the lock she was playing with and started twirling it in the same manner as she had. "This habit…"

Raven slapped at his hand, but he removed it before she could even see it move, finding it once more at his side, with his thumb tucked inside the pants, exposing slightly more pale flesh. Her eyes locked on that hand and she started beating her emotions lust and bravery for the suggestions they were sending her way about this vampire.

"When did you start it?" questioned the vampire.

"That habit?" replied Raven, finding her hand back to twirling a lock, berating herself and tucking her disobedient hand back down to her side. "…Since I let my hair grow out. Why are you so interesting in something so stupid?"

"…Nothing," answered the vampire darkly, looking away from her, then slowly bringing his eyes to the door they were standing at. "…Has anyone been in there to see him?"

"Just me…" said Raven weakly, following his eyes to her door. "I haven't allowed anyone in there since I put him in there."

"This…" the vampire approached and placed a hand on her door, looking at her. "Is your room, correct?"

"…Yes," confirmed Raven, suddenly feeling uneasy by the topic.

"Curious that you would put him in there and not in his own…or his lover's," smirked the vampire, bringing his eyes to Starfire, who flinched under this gaze, remembering what happened the last time she looked at his eyes. As if thinking the same as she was, the vampire grimaced at the redhead and returned his gaze back to Raven. "…Why is that?"

"…My room has thicker curtains," answered Raven, definitely not liking where this was going.

"Hmm…" murmured the vampire, running his hand slightly down the door to stop at the center of it. "They say a person's true nature is revealed by their reactions to a crisis…"

"Are you here to help Robin or not?" quickly growled Raven, wanting to change the subject before it could cause some damage. "So far, all you've done is make fun of us and stall."

He shrugged uncaringly. "Until Robin wakes up there isn't much I can do." He bowed his head slightly to her. "My apologizes. I was merely trying to pass some time and ease the tension that had been building up in you and your friends."

It was then that Raven realized that she was indeed less stressed than she was before he arrived. Argent and Starfire noticed this too and all three looked questionably at the vampire before them.

_He's cunning…he got our minds distracted from Robin. If he was able to do that without our noticing…then that means he either intentionally did it to ease our stress…or he was really distracting us from something else...Oh, Azar!_ thought Raven, bringing her eyes to where his hand was, then she remembered the shadow that he had left in her room.

Her eyes instantly glowed with power and she grabbed the vampire with a bird's claw from the floor and ripped him away from the door.

"No, don't!" shouted the vampire.

"You're commanding that shadow you left to do something more to Robin!" accused Raven, glaring down at him, along with the other two Titans.

"The process is delicate!" growled the vampire, not resisting his bonds. "His spirit must be guided back to this material realm. If I tried to do it with you overseeing, you might mistake something for danger, as you did now, and would have ruined the process!"

"I don't believe you," stated Raven coldly.

"It doesn't matter what you believe of me," said the vampire coldly. "You already interfered…"

Raven gasped and let go of her hold of him out of panic, using her soulself to phase through her door, entering her pitch black room. She quickly turned on the lights and found the shadow that had been left to guard Robin, melting over him.

It turned its deforming head and snarled at her. "….You…broke the link."

"…Robin! NO!" cried Raven, running to Robin, waving her arms wildly to beat the shadow off of Robin. It easily dissolved and vanished into nothingness.

She acted without thinking. She jumped onto the bed and straddled Robin's waist and placed both hands on either side of his head, chanting her words, the gem on her forehead flashed white as her eyes blazed the same. She reached into Robin through their bond, finding it slowly disintegrating and she could feel Robin's spirit beginning to fade away.

"Please! Please don't go away, Robin!" pleaded Raven, trying to re-establish the bond.

"Raven! You don't know what you are doing!" yelled the vampire who had entered her room, followed behind by Argent and Starfire. "You could lose yourself with him!"

"I don't care!" shouted Raven, reaching out further through the ruined bond.

Her world began to fade, her body started to feel the strain of her effort to restore the bond, but she wouldn't waver. She was determined to bring Robin back, hoping there was enough time to fix the damage she caused unintentionally. She reached out for him until she felt like her whole being was being spread too thin, threatening to snap at any moment. Then suddenly, her vision was filled with a dark place…a place of pure darkness and it called to her, whispering for her to enter it and stay forever. Her strength was already drained greatly, but she knew if she gave into those whispers, she'd forever be lost in this strange, dark realm.

She glided where she thought she sensed Robin in this dark realm, flying aimlessly through the darkness until she saw Robin, saw him wrestling with of blood. It was then she looked down and where she first saw only darkness, an endless field of blood rippled underneath her. Her attention was brought back to Robin when she heard a wicked laughter rise up from the darkness.

"_**You'll never return Robin! You're losssssst and now you belong to ussssss…"**_

It took her a moment but she realized that the creepy voice was coming from the blood whipping and trying to pull Robin down into its endless depths.

"Robin, I'm here!" shouted Raven, flying to his aid.

"R-Raven?" whispered a weakening Robin, his face full of torment and pain gazed up at her in disbelief. "…You…you are going to runaway, too?"

Not understanding his meaning, she reached out and grasped his hand and started tugging at him, trying to lift him out of the living blood.

"_**NO! He is oursssss!!"**_ screamed the blood, whipping out to grab her.

Tendrils of blood wrapped themselves around Raven, gripping her arms and her torso, trying to pull her down with Robin. Raven strained with what was left of her strength, feeling it rapidly leeching away from her being and started to descend into the blood with Robin.

"Raven! Don't do this! You'll be dragged in with me! Let go!" yelled Robin, trying to work his grip free of Raven's.

Raven tightened her around his hands, digging her nails into his arms with desperate strength. "I won't lose you, Robin! If you disappear than I will, too!"

"…Excellent," a familiar dark voice chuckled from nowhere.

A pair of strong arms suddenly wrapped around Raven and they pulled, yanking her free of the tendrils and pulling Robin out with her. She felt the sensation of flying through nothingness at tremendous speed , completely unable to control anything. Were she in her rational state, she'd be panicking and trying to gain some control, but all that she cared for at that moment was the look of relief on Robin's face. He smiled up at her and she un-knowingly returned one of her own.

That moment was ruined, though, when she caught something moving behind Robin. It was a mass of dark blood, the entity that had tried to pull Robin down into its mortar depths was trailing right behind them. It reached out with its greedy tendrils toward them, whipping and thrashing wildly after them, from the rippling surface of the blood, she could see angry, snarling faces howling for its escaping prey.

"Hold on!" warned the familiar voice.

They doubled their already extreme speed and Raven tightened her death grip on Robin more. Her vision was beginning to fade again, she felt herself returning back to her room. She prayed over and over for them to make it, willing with all her might for them to get away from the danger chasing them. Then suddenly, one of the tendrils from the mass reached out at surprising lengths and wrapped around Robin. But at that same moment, Raven found herself back in her room, sitting on top of Robin, her nails stained with blood from where her nails had dug into his flesh. She felt cold hands on her shoulders and turned to face the vampire holding her, looking exhausted.

"…You saved us?" whispered Raven.

"…You're welcome," drawled the vampire sarcastically.

Raven sighed tiredly as a smile formed over her pale lips. "Okay…Than—!!"

Her words were caught in her throat when teeth sank into her neck and her vision went white.

"Raven!" cried Argent in fear, running to her aid.

Raven couldn't see anything; all she could do was hear and feel as lips clamped down around the teeth and began sucking harshly. Everything suddenly spun on her in the whiteness, just as she felt the teeth ravaging her throat unlatch from her throat. She felt as if she was falling and she landed on something soft and firm. She tried to fight the blank white clouding her vision, but that made it worse.

Voices echoed all around her; two of them belonging to her teammates, the vampire, and one that shook her very being. It roared and she could feel her body tremble but helpless to do anything about it.

"_**They belong to ussssss!" **_boomed the same voice she heard in that dark realm. _**"We won't let them goooo!!"**_

Fear clinched her heart, trying in vain to fight the whiteness blinding her vision, and then as if it could no longer hold back her will, it started to fade. When it cleared, she immediately regretted what she saw.

Robin loomed over her, or what looked liked Robin. The thing standing over her had his body…but his face…his once handsome face was now distorted into a hideous gaping mouth filled with rows of sharp fangs, with one glowing red eye that burned through the remains of his mask, its fingers ended in razor, black talons. It looked down its gruesome face to glare savagely at Raven and though its mouth looked so stretched and full of fangs, it smiled evilly down at her.

"_**You're esssssence belongsssss to usssss!!"**_ hissed the monstrosity.

It started to reach down for her with its talons, chuckling menacingly as it flexed its claws in her face.

In that same instant, a fist slammed into the gruesome monster's face, sending the thing flying off her. "Get out of my fledgling, Revenant!"

Raven turned her head just enough to see that the vampire was now standing over her, his sunglasses gone and his crimson eyes and the red glyphs on his belt blazing red fury.

"_**Who are you to challenge ussssss??"**_ hissed the proclaimed Revenant.

The vampire grinned the most devilish grin she had ever seen yet on his face. His hair began to move behind him like a living cape of darkness as his fangs elongated and followed by more sets of fangs. The eyes opened impossibly wide and were flooded with pure crimson. Her senses felt before her eyes registered the power suddenly building up within the vampire, rolling off him like smoke and waving all around him.

Then in a voice that surprisingly matched the thing that had loomed over her, the vampire roared.

"_**The vampire Sin challenges you, you piece of shit!!"**_

--

A/N: Ooooo, scary. So Sin finally introduces himself and an evil entity now possesses Robin…What could this lead for the Titans, and for that matter, Robin? And what's the closeness between Raven and Argent….hmm, sounds pretty deep. Heh, heh! Yes, I'm evil but I bet you're sitting in your seat right now shaking with excitement at the end of this chapter, hmm? Well, let me know as soon as you can calm yourself down to send me a review. The sooner I see people's reactions, the sooner I can have the next chapter out, people…_**Heh, heh, heh till then…Sssssseee you later…in your darkessssst dreamsssss.**_


	4. Requiem of Awakening

Disclaimer: I don't own or claim any rights to Teen Titans. They are the rightful property of Cartoon Network and DC Comics. Rightful, and only claim, is to the plot and the following OCs: Sin.

A/N: I can only say that the delay for this chapter is all because I began playing World of Warcraft. That game is so absorbing…and really fun when you're a Warlock…hehehe…Ahem, anyways. I wish to apologize for the delay and for becoming a WoW addict (Except any of my readers who play WoW, you all can understand my plight.) And in truth, I probably wouldn't have started on this chapter were it not for VFSnake for sending me good music to inspire me to write, and the fact that WoW has been fixing all its servers because of the new patch. So, with that happening, it's given my mind freedom to focus on this chapter. So here we go!!

*******

**Requiem of Awakening**

There was only darkness after the pain finally went away. Robin was left with a numbing dizziness in the seemingly endless darkness, with only the sense he was descending down a dark bottomless abyss. It felt as if it was never going to come to an end, time seemed to be his tormentor, letting him fall like this forever in this cold darkness. As he fell, his mind was active with every memory he ever had since he was born. His entire life history played from the moment he was born, to his time growing up in the circus with his family, to their death, and so on until he came to the moment when he died.

The moment he died? That's right…he just died. He died in the arms of a total stranger who said he was going to save him. If he saved him then why was he in this darkness? Those and more questions ran through his mind before he came to a sudden, and painful, halt. He groaned loudly and rolled to his side and placed a hand on his aching head. He froze when he felt something wet and thick roll down the side of his face. Panicked, he pulled his hand away from his head to find his whole gloved hand soaked with blood. His panic rose more when he looked around to that the ground he had landed on was covered in blood…

"What is going on here?" said Robin nervously.

Carefully, he worked to sit on his knees and soon was standing on his feet when he felt brave enough to trust his legs to support him again.

"Where am I?" questioned Robin to no one. "…Is this the afterlife?"

This question remained unanswered, and in truth, he was glad it that. Wherever he found himself in now, he sure wasn't thrilled about filling out where he exactly was.

Groaning loudly, Robin glared at his morbid surroundings. "What in the hell did that guy do to me? And why am I here?"

It was at that moment that a flash of dark light flared over above him. Robin shielded his eyes, or eye, as he wasn't able to close his right eye for some odd reason. Something suddenly slammed into his forehead, knocking him back down into the pool of blood. As he yelped in shock, he opened his one eye to see a thread of dark light connected to his forehead, leading up into the ceiling of total darkness.

"Okay…things are getting weirder now," groaned Robin, rubbing his aching head.

He wondered why he had a thread of dark light connected to his forehead now. He reached up to touch it and try to get it to go away, but the moment he gripped his, his entire being quaked. Instantly, he let go of the thread and glared at it harshly.

"I hope things begin to make more sense because I'm really getting confused here!" growled Robin as he stood up once more. "…For one…WHY AM I STANDING IN BLOOD?!?!"

Once more there was no answer to his question. He decided to start walking and try and find someone that could help him, even if that meant walking ankle deep in blood. As he did, a familiar voice spoke behind him.

"Robin! I'm so glad to see you safe!"

Spinning around, Robin found Starfire floating just above the blood, looking radiant as ever.

"Starfire!" shouted Robin in relief, beginning to run toward her. "I'm so glad you found me! Do you know what's going on here?"

As he neared her, he soon saw her smiling face begin to distort and twist into a look of horror. "No…you're not Robin…" She began to back away from him, shielding herself with her arms. "G-Get away from me, you monster!"

Robin stopped running and stared at her in confusion. "Monster?" He quickly looked around for signs of whatever monster she was talking about. Seeing none at all, he looked back to her. "Star, it's only us. There are no monsters here. What's gotten into you?" He reached out a hand to her.

She jerked away from his hand. "N-No! Don't touch me! You murderer!"

"Murderer?" repeated Robin, starting to feel really scared now. "What's wrong, Starfire? What's happened to make you think I'm a murderer?!"

Starfire began to float away from him, but as she did, Robin quickly leapt out to grab a hold of her, hoping that he could get her to see reason. But as his hand touched her, her entire body exploded into a brilliant emerald green light. The explosion threw Robin away and landed on his side in the endless pool of blood. When he looked back, he saw a glowing form of Starfire twisting around in the air, screaming wildly.

"Starfire!" cried Robin as he tried to get back up.

But as he did, something from the darkness struck and ripped through Starfire, something that looked oddly like a ghost in the form of a large cat. It tore through Starfire, leaving her to vanish into nothingness. The leopard roared and it too vanished into nothingness.

"W-What's going on here?" uttered Robin in confusion.

Suddenly he heard a wet, soggy sound behind him and he turned around to see a glob of blood rise from the endless crimson ground. In the glob he saw his reflection…or what he thought was his reflection. The image in the blood looked like him, but there were sufficient differences he immediately spotted; for one, he only had one eye and although he was gasping in fright, the image in the blood was smiling at him with rows of sharp teeth.

"_**You are loossssst," **_his image suddenly hissed.

"….Who are you and what do you want?" demanded Robin quickly, assuming a defensive stance.

"_**Your esssencesssssss," **_replied the image evilly. _**"…We want your esssencessss…" **_The glob of blood suddenly showed images of faces screaming and moaning; all of them staring hauntingly at Robin.

Robin backed away in fright when the glob of blood started coming toward him, reaching out to him with tendrils, but as they were about to touch him, the silver cord yanked him out of its grasp. The glob hissed and shook with fury.

"_**You will losssse!"**_ stated the thing. _**"You will losssse your line and then we will take you..."**_

"Like hell you will," replied Robin, feeling very grateful for whatever force was aiding him.

The thing hissed and shook. It took Robin a moment to realized that it wasn't hissing in angry but laughing. _**"They all say that…all who come here…you will be no different. You are nothing now…just a fragment of what you were…Just a fragment…just a fragment!"**_ The image in the blood thing licked its lips. _**"A tassssty fragment…"**_

"Sorry, but I don't plan on being your tasty treat today," stated Robin, reaching into his Utility Belt…just for his hand to feel nothing but his pants. "What they?"

The thing shook again with laughter. _**"Can't fight…not here, you're jusssst a fragment…Fragment'ssss cannot do nothing here!"**_

"Oh, will you be quiet," a quiet, raspy voice groaned.

The thing suddenly shrieked in fright and retreated back into the endless pool of blood. Robin whipped his head behind him to see an old man in a black cloak. His face was pale as moonlight and his head just as shiny from lack of any hair, with eyes the color of solid black coal and ears as pointy as an elf's.

"Revenants...hate them. Annoying things," said the old man.

"W-Who are you?" asked Robin.

"Me? Hmm…been a long time since someone asked who I was," replied the old man, scratching his wrinkled chin. "Usually, I get screamed at and told to get lost…hehehehe."

"Er, well, I didn't. So tell me, who are you…and what is this place?" repeated Robin.

"Ah, like to get right to the point," smiled the old man. "All right, I can do that. Well, young man, you are in a space-between-spaces. This place exists everywhere and nowhere, what you would call Limbo…or to be more precise…the lowest pits of Limbo." The old man started walking around Robin. "As to who I am…well, I don't know. I've been here for so long I've forgotten how I even came to be here. Just call me Old man; it'll make this easier for the both of us as I'm a man and old, hah, hah!"

Robin just stared at the pacing old man. "Okay, fine…I'm in Limbo, why am I here?"

"AH! Finally you ask that question. They all do. I was beginning to wonder when you would, too," quirked the old man, rubbing his hands together. "Why you're here is because you died…but didn't."

"Umm, yeah, that answers that," drawled Robin. "Can you explain it a bit more? I'm lost here."

"Exactly!" shouted the old man excited. "You are lost! That is why you are here, your spirit is lost! That's why they call this Limbo, young man!"

Robin groaned and rubbed his head from the quickly growing headache he was forming. "Okay, so I'm lost, is that the only reason why I'm here? And what happened to Starfire!"

"No, young man," replied Old Man with a serious tone, killing the humor that was once in it. "You are also here because you've accepted the Embrace from a vampire. As for this Starfire you mentioned, it wasn't her. It was a vision…a bit of insight of what to expect in your new life. Take into everything you see under great care here. For it will unroll your path through this dark road."

He stopped his pacing and squared his eyes on Robin's remaining eye. "You accepted a pact with a vampire to become a vampire. That is what the Embrace means. You agreed to give up your mortality, your humanity, to become a being of darkness." He waved one hand and looked around him. "This darkness and darkness of other realms. You have allowed this darkness to become part of you and that is why you were summoned here…" Faster than Robin could react, the old man dashed right at Robin and grabbed his silver cord with his bony fingers. "...To finish that pact…and be reborn as something far more than you once were."

Robin was thrown into a world of agonizing pain; for the second time. He tried clawing at the old man's bony hand, but his hand was stronger than they looked.

"W-Why are you doing this?!" cried Robin, feeling his entire being be violated and exposed.

"_**You entered a pact with me, Richard Grayson**_," answered Old man with tremendous power. "_**Through the vampire that Embraced you, you agreed to accept my gift into you, and now I will sever your last tie connected to the light so that you may fully embrace the darkness…**_" and with a simple twisted of his wrist, he snapped the cord and with the piece still glowing from Robin's head, his hand glowed with a dark light and it poured into Robin through his broken cord, then he let go as the dark light created a new cord and shot straight into the empty darkness above them to reconnect to where the silver cord originated.

The dark light poured into Robin's forehead, branching out and slithering its way around his eyes and into his nostrils, and pouring deeply into his gaping mouth. It began to creep into his veins and radiate off his body and into the bloody around his feet. As soon as that dark light touched the blood, it began to move again, only this time raising up in waves and slowly wrapping around him, like some hellish-cocoon.

Old man stared in wonder at the blood around Robin. "…The essence is reacting to him…something isn't right here." Then his eyes widen in realization before they sadden. "Oh, boy, dear boy…you are from that bloodline…you have my sympathy child."

He watched as the blood rise the cocoon up into the air and seemed to tighten, condensing down as if it was trying to shrink, but the truth was, the blood was entering his body just like the dark light. It wiggled into his mouth and nostrils, around his eyes and into all his pours. It swirled around him until his body frame appeared once more, surrounded by a thin shin of blood, like a second skin, and then, his torment ended when that shin of blood absorbed itself into his body and he fell back down into the endless floor of blood.

Old man walked over to the gasping hero and patted his head softly. "I'm sorry, my boy…your future will be a hard one, and I fear one stained with death and blood…" Then to his further amazement, he saw the dark light blaze around Robin, forcing him to shield his sensitive eyes from the flash. "What in the Pits of Limbo?!"

When the dark light deemed enough for him to see, Old man nearly fell down himself in shock at what he saw before him now.

Robin stood before him surrounded with dark light with his eyes closed. Yes, this time both eyes. The hollowed out socket that once housed his eye was now replaced with a new one glowing one. Ethereal wings like those of a bat or dragon sprouted from behind him and unfolded to their full length, reaching twelve feet long from wing tip to wing tip. His hair fanned out above and waved all around him like a crown of darkness.

The old man slowly smiled upon the almost deity-looking being now before him. "Ah, so you are _his_ Darkborn…"

"_**What…what's happening to me?" **_Robin whispered with a soft yet powerful voice, opening his eyes.

"Merely a glimpse of what you will have to look forward to," mused Old Man, folding his arms into the sleeves of his robes.

"_**I'm…I'm scared,"**_ admitted Robin, gazing at the old man with shaking fear.

Old Man smiled at him sympathically. "You are wise already to admit to fear, but do not let it control you, Richard. You have a grand destiny before you…Oh, yes, a great one, indeed…"

The moment of divine providence was suddenly ruined when Robin screamed in agony when his new cord vanished, and then the blood under him shot up and wrapped around him.

"What…No!" screamed Old man, dashing to Robin to save him. "You cannot have this one!"

The blob of blood rose up between him and Robin. _**"Too late…Old man…Hehehehehe, he lost hissssss way back. Hisssss link is gone! He is oursssssss!"**_

The blood whipped up and shot tendrils at Old man, but before they even touched him, Old man was up in the air, gazing down at the unfortunate fallen hero. "Oh, blast it all…I cannot do anything for you, Richard…you are truly lost…I'm so sorry…"

"Please! Don't leave me!" pleaded Robin, his form returning to its original ruined state. "Help me!"

"I cannot…my part is done. I cannot interfere if your link has been broken," mourned Old man sadly. "This here lies where I am truly powerless…forgive me." And slowly from Robin's vision, the old man vanished into nothingness.

"No!!" screamed Robin, struggling against his macabre bonds.

The blob of blood quivered as it laughed evilly at Robin. _**"Ssssssoooon, you will join usssss. Sssssoooon your essssence will make us sssssstronger!!"**_

Robin then felt himself being slowly pulled down into the gory pool. He wrestled with all his might to try and keep afloat, but it was to no avail, the tendrils pulling him down were too strong. As he was being pulled down, the blob slithered over to him and towered over him, in its morbid reflection, Robin saw wretched faces, all screaming endlessly in their eternal prison.

"No! I won't let you take me!" yelled Robin, clawing more feverishly at his bonds.

"_**Pointlesssssss!**_ _**You are already passsst hope! You are usssssss now!"**_ responded the blob. It laughed wickedly and slowly started bringing up more tendrils to pull Robin down into the blood. _**"You'll never return Robin! You're losssssst and now you belong to ussssss…"**_

Robin despaired. He was going to suffer a fate far worse than what death had given him, and now all he had to look forward to was joining the ranks of the tormented souls who too lost their path to this gross entity. What's more, he was all alone again. No one was going to save him, not Starfire, not the stranger, not the old man who he briefly greeted. They all left him to this fate, this gruesome eternal torment…

"Robin, I'm here!" came a familiar and oddly highly emotional voice.

"R-Raven?" whispered Robin weakly, twisting his head around to see Raven diving from the eternal darkness toward him.

Unbeknownst to her, or so he believed, a trail of dark light followed her and to his vision, he saw people holding her and guiding Raven down to him. One of them was the Old man himself, smiling down at Robin and winking at him as he helped lead Raven down to him. Another person, one he never met smiled at him, flying next to Raven and also guiding her down, he could barely make this person out, but he could sense a feel of femininity and warmth. The other people were too translucent to make out, but they all held onto Raven and guided her down to him, but as she neared him, they all started to fade from around her, leaving only Raven.

To his already disheartened stated, he feared that once more that Raven would disappear like Starfire did. He couldn't bare it if he saw her leave, too. He never really told her how much her presence always made him feel better, how much the bond they secretly shared meant to him. So distorted was he, he didn't realize when he whimpered if she too was going to leave him out loud.

To his shock, she didn't vanish. Instead, he saw a brief look was confusion before a look of determination fell over her face. He saw her reach out and grabbed him with a strength he never knew she possessed. He then heard the gory entity scream its claim over him and lash out at her, wrapping her, too, with its tendrils and started pulling them both down into the crimson depths.

Seeing this, Robin knew he couldn't let Raven join his grim fate. Desperately, he stopped fighting the tendrils and started trying to pry Raven's grip from him. "Raven! Don't do this! You'll be dragged in with me! Let go!"

Her proclamation shook his core with joy and despair. ""I won't lose you, Robin! If you disappear than I will, too!"

Robin was warmed by her devotion to save him, but he inwardly wept for her as they continued to be dragged into the blood. He could feel the blood already covering his face and smiled grimly up at Raven, wondering about the kind of life they both would share within the bloody entity.

His depressed musing stopped when a flash of crimson erupted from behind Raven and he saw the stranger who put him here suddenly hovering behind Raven, smiling devilishly, wings of ethereal darkness fanned out behind him, then heard him say: "…Excellent."

He saw him wrap his arms around Raven and winked down at him before those ethereal wings flexed and with one mighty beat, he and Raven were yanked out of the endless blood and flying into the crimson light behind the stranger. As they journeyed through the eerie light, Robin felt all his grief and woe leave him behind in that pit of misery. He smiled probably for the first time since he ended up in this horrible realm at Raven, and a wave of astonishment washed over him when he saw her eyes. Those cool orbs of lavender that normally housed cold and unfeeling were brightened with joy and warmth. They shined down over him like the soft moonlight during a clear starry sky as the full moon hugged the sleepy world with its tender embrace. That was how he felt right in that moment before the empath…embraced by her glow.

Sadly, that wondrous look of hers vanished as fear appeared on her face. He saw the same look on the stranger's face as he looked over Robin's head. He snarled and his wings begin to move before he heard him shout a warning then those wings beat once more and their speed doubled. Robin felt Raven's petite hands tightening painfully on him, but he didn't mind the pain, more he was concerned for the sudden fear, when he felt something slither around him. He almost started to scream when the eerie light around them flashed and he felt himself lying on his back with something heavy on top of him. He tried to open his eyes, but only one was working and as it was, it felt as if someone had taped over it. It was then that he felt very strange, he felt himself slipping away in his mind and fear gripped him as he felt those slimy tendrils wrap around his consciousness.

He screamed out a warning but no sound came from his voice as he was pulled into the deepest part of his mind, and then…he remembered nothing.

Robin's body twitched as it started to move. His remaining eye opened and creaked wickedly as it began to glow an evil red, smiling the same as his mouth widened and morphed into a horrid gap full of rows of pointy teeth. The thing that was once Robin gazed up at the unsuspecting prey sitting on top of it and instinct told it to strike! It lunged happily up at the prey and purred in glee as its teeth sank for the first time into soft, warm flesh and rolled with ecstasy as a flood of hot fluid poured out and quenched its parched throat. But this thing was a thing of hunger and greed and it wanted more! It wasn't satisfied with just what was coming it, it wanted more to flow into it, to fill its enormous appetite, and it planned to do so with this prey and the next, and then the next, and the next…

It didn't bother with the other inferior prey trying to pull it off its meal, they couldn't match its strength, and so ignored them until later when it was their time to satisfy its hunger. It swooned with the pleasure of the feast and abruptly roared in rage when something wiggled into the corner of its jaw and with a strength it couldn't believe, yanked its jaw down and forced it off its meal. It snapped at whatever had forced it off its prey, but it was gone before its teeth could do it damage. The other being wanted its prey! It wouldn't let it have it as it roared a warning and stated its claim of its kill and its already trapped prey within its dark mind, remembering some of its past life, and its true nature…it had to feed, it had to consume essence to exist, and it wasn't going to let anything take it away from it.

It growled at the inferior things around it and gazed down at its meal, delighted that it was still alive and fresh! It snarled in glee and flexed claws it wasn't aware of having until that moment. It felt complied to chuckle as it watched its meal squirm in fear of it and decided to put the poor, weak thing out of its misery and consume her.

But again, it was halted when something struck its face, the same being it imagined that forced it off its meal, and only then did the thing feel a new sensation as it flew way from its meal and slammed into something solid: Pain.

For all its existence, it never experienced such an unpleasant feeling and it vowed to make the being that made it feel like this suffer greatly for it. As it picked itself up, it looked around for the one that was responsible for its discomfort and locked its one eye on a tall, dark prey…

Wait, no. This was no prey. It could feel that in it. This being was a predator in its own right, and a very strong one at that.

The other predator snarled at it as it pulled its arm back. ""Get out of my fledgling, Revenant!"

Revenant? Yes, that was what it was, it remembered now…but not anymore. It felt it was something else now, something far stronger than it was before and it liked this power flowing inside him. It planned to keep it and make it grow, but its rage demanded retribution for its discomfort!

"_**Who are you to challenge ussssss?????"**_ it roared at the predator, and soon it began to feel a new sensation run through its new body, something like pain, but this was a far worse experience in its opinion when it felt the raw dark energy pour forth from the crimson eyed predator grinning devilishly at it.

It watched as red things began to glow around the predator's waist and ethereal darkness smoke around it, and then it roared back at it.

"_**The vampire Sin challenges you, you piece of shit!!!!"**_

And before it could challenge the predator, it leapt straight for it. The next thing it understood was pain exploding from under its chin and the sound of something fragile breaking around it as it flew again into a cool, breezy environment.

-----

The Teen Titans had witnessed many a strange occurrence. They've seen bizarre aliens try to invade earth; they've fought insane criminals with powers of their own right try and take over their city. They even went up against a being that was supposedly God-like, but what they saw now was beyond any of their minds.

They never in their wildest imagination ever thought they would see their leader, Robin the Boy Wonder, become the thing that just attacked Raven.

Argent was the first to snap out of her daze after the sudden horrifying event, and with the help from the others, they tried to get it off Raven, but it was the stranger who was able to get it off it. Then were shocked by the power the stranger had when it punched it off Raven and then glowed with a dark aura, and then attacked the thing again and knocked it out of Raven's window.

The stranger, who claimed himself to be called Sin, turned to Argent, letting her see his feral, red glowing eyes.

"Don't go anywhere near that Revenant! It will kill you before you can stop it!" warned Sin, as he started walking to the broken window.

"W-What are you going to do?" gapped Argent.

"…I'm going to fix this before it gets out of hand," replied Sin, and then he leapt out of the broken window and descended down to the beach below.

Argent stared at the broken window for a long moment before her mind reminded her of an immediate problem. She forgot for a moment about the monster and the stranger as she turned her concerns to a wounded Raven, who was holding a glowing hand to her bleeding neck. Starfire was by her side with part of Raven's bed sheet that she ripped off to make a temporary tourniquet and helped try to stop the bleeding.

"She's gonna be fine," said Starfire quickly, upon seeing the plasma wielder's worried look. "Ro…that thing actually didn't get any major artery…we were lucky there."

Argent sighed in relief. "That's good. But you stay here with Raven. I'm going out to handle that thing that stranger turned Robin into! And then, I'm gonna turn that freak into a real corpse!"

She started to go when she felt something grab his wrist. She looked down and saw the pleading look in Raven's eyes. "D-Don't!" choked Raven, fighting Starfire off her and trying to sit up. "It's not his fault…he!" she stopped as pain stole her voice and blood pumped out of her wounds, but she didn't give up. "It was something else…Some other monster did this to Robin…"

"What?! Another monster?! When did that happen?" cried Argent in exasperation.

"It's complicated," rasped Raven, her neck wound finally beginning to stop bleeding, but leaving her feeling aching and weak. "Something else came back with us when I mind-dived into Robin." She tried to sit up again, but Starfire pushed her back down. "We gotta go help Robin."

"You think we can…?" asked Starfire, hoping to X'Hal that Robin was still within hopes of being saved.

"Yes, we can….but we got to act fast…That Revenant the vampire called him will try eating Robin's spirit from within unless we don't find a way to wake him up…" informed Raven.

"You mean Robin isn't aware of what he's doing?" sighed Starfire in relief.

"No, Robin is more likely suppressed in that things twisted mind," replied Raven, her voice becoming stronger as her wound healed itself…a bit too quickly. She pushed that fact aside for the moment as it wasn't important at that moment. Saving Robin was. She started back up again and found she had the strength to keep Starfire back from pushing her back down. "I got to get to him. If I can get back into Robin's mind, I think I can wake him up."

"But that guy said we'd be toast if we as so much as get near him," reminded Argent.

"Robin's one of us and we look out for each other, no matter the danger it might be to us," stated Raven, firmly now back on her feet and trying to wipe the blood off herself, only to get more all over her hands and arms. Giving up on it, she floated over to the window. "Come…we got to help Robin." And without a single thought to her own safety, she charged down to the beach.

"…I've never seen Raven so focused, not in a long time," murmured Starfire with a critical look.

"I'm for one glad!" proclaimed Argent, starting after Raven and creating a disk with her plasma energy and hopping on it and flew out of the window. "What up, Rae!"

Starfire said nothing but her eyes looked uncertain before she chased after her female teammates.

Down on the beach, the three Titans found Sin staring off with the Robin-Revenant. The two were glaring at each other with so much primal strength; it was almost visible to their eyes in the form of waving hot air. Sin grinned down at the Robin-Revenant and with a simple shrug of his shoulders; his jacket slipped off him and fell down his arms, exposing his naked torso, and reveal a hidden wrist-blade strapped to his left arm. He slowly removed that too while keeping his red eyes on Robin-Revenant, letting it fall next to his jacket. The three Titan girls blushed as they were treated to the sight of his well-built upper body and solid muscles…but Raven gasped when the wind kicked his silky midnight ponytail to the side to let some moon light shine on his back. From the back of his neck down to his pant lines, his back was marked with dozens of grey scars, two stood out above the mess of scars. Both of these scars were a quarter and a half wide and ran down both his shoulder-blades and looked the angriest of all the scars on his back, ruining more of the perfect vision of pale flesh.

"I told you to stay away," growled Sin, still not looking away from the thing.

"Robin's one of us. We're going to help him, even if it might mean our deaths," stated Raven with a tone that left no further discussion.

"Your funeral," chuckled Sin, taking on small step toward Robin-Revenant. "Just don't get in my way or do anything to help me."

"What? What kind of advice is that?" gawked Argent.

He slowly began to chuckle evilly and his shoulders began to shake from the force his chuckling took and his ponytail unraveled, as a lock of hair had been used to tie the long black hair, and it began to wave behind him like cape of darkness.

"_**Enough!"**_ roared the Robin-Revenant as its patience had at last run out.

It dashed at the laughing vampire and lunged its claws at his chest. The vampire remained where he was and flicked his right foot up with blinding speed, catching the Revenant under its chin and sending it sailing back onto the beach.

"What trash," chuckled Sin, widening his fanged smile. "You honestly believe you can take on a vampire? Truly pathetic. Why don't you crawl back to the cesspool you were born, your lichen."

The Robin-Revenant roared its anger and charged again at the vampire. Sin actually dodged its claws at a visible speed and began twirling around the Revenant as it tried again and again to land a blow on him. This continued for some time and it looked as if neither combatant's were getting the least bit tired.

"This is taking too long!" said Raven in worry. "If we don't do something soon, Robin will be lost in that thing."

"Then let us start slowing it down!" declared Starfire and charged fist first as she took flight toward the thing.

Argent, still on her disk, dashed toward with her and created a baseball bat and readied it to swing.

Sin caught sight of the approaching Titans and frowned. "Idiots…but concerned idiots."

He got the Robin-Revenant to pay attention to him as the two approached with a kick to its rear end, then disappeared from its sight just as Starfire zoomed behind him and landed a crushing blow on the things horrid face. Argent zoomed around and batted the other side of its head, hoping their blows would stun the thing long enough for Raven to mind-dive. Much to their shock, the Robin-Revenant recovered from their strikes quickly and slashed its clawed hands at each of them in a circular spin. Before either claw hit them, Sin appeared behind it and grabbed its wrists and with amazing speed and strength spun himself and lifted the monster above his head, releasing one of its wrists and whipping it down hard on the rocky ground with such force it knocked up loose rocks and sand that washed up close to the tower. He let go of the wrist and kicked the thing in the ribs, sending it crashing into a boulder.

"Don't let it get a hold on you or you will regret it," warned Sin again, but grinning at the gutsy women. "Just let me take front, if he gets me it won't matter."

The two Titans shared a confused look with each other and stared at the vampire.

"Fine, if you wanna get messed up, that's…Whoa!" screamed Argent when Sin grabbed her and pulled her toward him. Just in time, too, as she felt something whistle and slice into the back of her hair. She turned back to see the Robin-Revenant had gotten behind her.

"Heh, I don't mind a little rough stuff, but you might wanna keep your head in the game or you might lose it," snickered Sin, winking at her as she blushed and let go of her. "Keep alert; he's getting desperate now…"

He was right. The thing was feeling its power slowly slipping and it felt the need to feed more than ever. The spirit of the hero it took over was proving too slow to digest and the blood from its last meal, while very tasty and had filled it with such strength, wasn't lasting as long as it liked. It had to feed and its hunger was making it start to move frantically now. It just had to feed! It glared at the three fighting it and snarled its hatred toward them. Why couldn't they just let it eat them? It couldn't understand why they couldn't just let it sate its need on their essence. Figuring they weren't going to let it get its way, it started looking around and to its delight; it spotted its first meal standing just off to the side and looking right back.

It smiled at her hungrily.

Raven flinched at the thing brought its gaze on her, but she wasn't going to let it see her fear. She had to stop it at any cost to get to Robin, but her throat had swollen up on her all of a sudden, showing she hadn't healed as quickly as she thought, leaving her defenseless. But even a swollen throat wasn't going to stop her. She was bound to do whatever it cost to save Robin…even if it meant…

Making up her mind, she threw her cloak off and raised her chin up, exposing her throat. With much effort as she could, she rasped, "Come…have more…I'll let you." It was an insane plan but she had to get close to him if she could do anything to save him.

It didn't take the monster very long to take up on her offer. It lunged at her happily and grabbed her shoulders and pinned her to the ground.

"Raven!" screamed Argent in fright.

Starfire was about to blast the thing off Raven with her eyebeams when Sin appeared in her line of sight. He dove at the two just as the monster bared its dripping fangs and lunged down to take another bite out of her delicate neck when a pale arm worked its way between it and Raven. Not caring for the sudden blockage, it bit down on the pale arm and began feasting happily. It would soon regain its strength and would finish off its annoying prey once and for all.

Had it been a more intelligent thing, it would have wondered why the vampire was suddenly chuckling evilly. He gazed down at it and then at a shocked Raven. "Nice idea, but that won't be needed, Raven."

He lifted the monster off her and threw it away, not seeming to care that it ripped a chuck of his arm off with it. He simply looked at his gaping wound and smirked at it as his shadow rose up behind him and a tendril slithered up and around his wound and filled what flesh was missing. He flexed his hand and smirked in satisfaction as no blood dripped from the wound. He smirked at the monster and rested his hands on his hips.

"It should be any moment now," said Sin with a pleased look.

"Any moment for what?" wondered Argent, looking at the monster.

"That thing doesn't realize what kind of body it just possessed," replied Sin cryptically. "It thought itself a hunter…never realizing it had turned itself into prey the moment it entered Robin's body."

"I do not understand your words. What is going to happen?" asked Starfire in desperation.

"Robin was fully embraced before the link was broken…" answered Sin, grinning devilishly. "It thought it was in control the whole time, but in truth…it's been getting devoured the moment it entered him." He smirked down at Raven. "Your blood gave it a bit of strength…a bit more than I had imagined, which is why it's taken this long before Robin's natural nature takes care of the intruder."

Raven widened her eyes in realization. "You mean…"

"Yes," nodded Sin. "Robin's vampiric nature is at this moment eating away at the intruder and soon Robin will wake up. We just got to keep that thing from feeding on a _living_ source."

"Your blood won't make it stronger?" worried Argent, looking at the monster that was just now working itself back to its feet.

Sin chuckled more. "No! My blood is undead! If anything, it just sped up the vampiric process for Robin!"

It was at that moment that everyone saw the monster begin to whimper in agony and fall down. It curled up into a tight ball and clawed at the rocky terrain, marking it deeply with its talons. It didn't know what was happening to it. All it knew was that it started to feel like something was ripping it into pieces from the inside. It could feel each piece of itself be drained away from it, forever lost no matter how much it fought to get it back. It needed to feed! It needed to get strength from something to fight off whatever was hurting it before it was too late…if only it understood that it was already too late…

It's struggling soon ended as the last bit of the Revenant was slowly drained. It lied there on the rocky ground in complete silence as its body finally stilled. To the Titans relief, they saw the monstrous disfigurations return to normal, save for the pale skin and long black hair.

"That's better," mused Sin as he approached Robin and rolled him onto his back, softly patting his cheek. "Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead!"

To everyone's great surprise, Robin mumbled, "…Come on Alfred, it's Saturday…lemme sleep…"

Sin chuckled at that but before he could work on waking him up, he found a head of red hair in his vision and pushed away. "Uh…Excuse me?"

Starfire ignored him as she looked all over Robin. "Ricky! Ricky! Please wake up!"

Raven and Argent looked at each other, and said in unison, "Ricky?"

Robin finally began to wake up fully and even yawned, and then looked up at Starfire and smiled lazily. "Oh, hey Kori…man, what time is it? I feel like I've been sleeping for ages."

He sat up and rubbed his face, not aware of smearing the blood dripping from his mouth all over his face, until it past his nose, causing his nostrils to flare in excitement. He pulled his hand away from his face and stare in horror at the crimson covering his hand, wondering why his senses were happy about it. At the same time his mind began to replay everything that transpired. From his fight in with Madame Rouge, to his deal with the stranger, and then the entire episode in the dark realm flash before his eyes up until Raven's rescue, and then his mind was blank from there. He stared up at Starfire and soon let his eye wander from Argent and lastly Raven. His eye widened in fear as he easily spotted her blood-stained throat. He looked once more at his hand, then back at Raven with a look of mortification.

"…W-What did I…" mourned Robin, looking back to Starfire.

His lover averted her eyes from his, bringing more dread to him.

"Robin…you didn't do this," assured Raven. "It was that thing in that other realm…a Revenant."

If Robin heard her he didn't respond. His gaze was back on the blood on his hand. "I...I hurt one of my friends…"

Sin rolled his eyes and brushed some sand that had gotten on his pants. "Are you hard of hearing? She just said you didn't."

Robin shot his one eye up and glared at the vampire with boiling rage. "You…You made this happen!"

Sin blinked slowly and looked at Raven, who looked very nervous. He couldn't blame her. How would Robin take it if he knew that one of his closest friends had almost ruined his chances of return from the dark realm he just suffered through? He'd let her tell him when she was ready…if she ever decided to. Grinning, he locked his red eyes on Robin's single one, planning on let Robin assume what he wanted.

"So what? You're back, aren't you?" sneered Sin, acting uncaringly. "What else matters…Heh, so you gave a teammate a nasty hickey, it isn't the end of the world." He winked at Raven. "And because…she might have liked it."

Raven widened her eyes a fraction before a wave of relief flooded her, but Robin mistook her reaction as one of pain and embarrassment, as when she sighed, it came out raspy and forced.

"You bastard!" roared Robin and dashed up off the ground and struck out with a fist at the vampire.

"Oh, great…Pffhh!" groaned Sin, as he let Robin's fist punch him in the gut.

Robin growled and followed his punch with another in his gut, then stepped back to kick Sin's head, but his foot was halted when a pale hand wrapped around his ankle.

"Still got energy to fight, huh?" grinned Sin, tightening his hold on Robin's ankle. "Fine by me! Let's see what you've got!" He took a step toward Robin and spun on his right heel, throwing the Titan leader off balance and twirling him around him until he let go, letting the build up momentum carry Robin off to crash roughly against another boulder on the beach, this time, breaking right through it.

"Robin!" shrieked Starfire, charging her starbolts up and snarling at the vampire. "Why did you do that to him?!"

Sin locked his crimson gaze on her and she felt her entire being lock up. "Stay out of this…and I mean it this time…" He brought up his hand just as Robin emerged from the rumble and jump kicked at him with amazing speed. Once again, he grappled Robin and slammed him down on the ground.

Starfire raised her fist up to launch her starbolt at Sin. The vampire caught the emerald glow out from the corner of his eye and side-stepped at the last moment to let it buzz harmlessly by his head. "I said..." his eyes glowed deadly red. "_**Stay out of this…"**_

Starfire couldn't stop her body from suddenly locking up and floating away from the vampire. She landed next to Argent and couldn't move anymore. "W-What is happening?!"

"He's used some kind of hypnosis on you, Starfire," rasped Raven, examining her with her powers.

"We got to stop him before he hurts Robin more!" struggled Starfire, trying to force her body to move.

"I don't think we need to," remarked Argent as she spotted Robin getting back up and snarling with rage at the vampire.

He dashed in low and tried to hit the vampire with an uppercut. Said vampire countered with backhand and stepped quickly to Robin's exposed side and kneed him in the ribs. Robin flinched as he felt himself be thrown to the ground, but he tucked his body into a roll and got back onto his feet. He leapt into the air and aimed a drop-kick at the vampire's head. Sin countered with crossing his arms over his head and blocked the kick, then gripped Robin's leg with both hands and pulled him out of the air closer to him and elbowed him in the face. Robin crashed to the ground and groaned in pain, but tried to force it away as he rolled onto his side and kick Sin's knee out. The kick landed and Sin dropped to his one knee, smirking down at Robin.

"Heh, very good!" complimented Sin, right before he leaned down on his hands and lifted his lower body up and spun his heel down at Robin.

The Titan Leader rolled out of the way in time to miss the strike. He took a moment to stare in shock when he saw the heel had cracked the ground, leaving a small hole under the vampire's heel. Robin's moment cost him as Sin pushed off the ground and brought his other heel down over Robin, which Robin barely missed as he rolled away again. Sin angled his foot and slowed it down so he could put his weight on it to stand up straight and look down at Robin with a grin, pocketing his hands in his pants. Robin didn't know why, but he suddenly smiled up at the vampire and lunged at him again with his fist. Sin dodged it and swung his knee up at Robin's face, who caught it with his free hand and pushed himself away from Sin. The two faced off and oddly just kept grinning at the other.

Robin wondered why he was smiling at this man. He shouldn't be after knowing what this man put him through and then what happened to Raven…he shouldn't be finding himself enjoying this fight.

"Come on, Robin!" urged Sin, looking at him with excited glee. "Don't think about it! Just go with it!"

His words filled Robin is an odd kind of thrill and it made him rush once more head on toward the vampire. He ducked the punch Sin threw at him and kicked in the side. The vampire grunted and laugh at the amount of strength Robin had put in the blow.

"Good! Very good!" grinned Sin, holding his side.

His eyes lit up literally and he increased his fervor and punched rapidly at Robin, who was surprised that he didn't care when they landed on him. He blocked as many as he could and started punching back through Sin's, no longer caring that all the punches were getting him now. They just started bashing the other senselessly now, although Robin had a feeling that Sin was holding back, he didn't care. He just started hitting harder to urge him to use more strength again him.

During that time, the three Titan girls were just staring in odd amazement at the way this battle was going.

"…Is it me or does it look like they're enjoying this fight?" uttered Argent.

"A little too much," added Starfire, feeling amazed at the new stamina her lover now possessed.

"It could just be their nature," remarked Raven, using her powers once more to heal her swollen neck. "Maybe they just like to fight…"

They watched as Robin broke through the vampire's attack and slugged in the face, his one eye flashing briefly with the same glow as Sin's.

"Whatever is the reason, we must stop this!" stated Starfire, still trying to more. "It might look like a game, but it could lead to something very serious."

Raven nodded. "Yeah, this is getting a bit out of hand." She raised on hand. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

The two wild combatants were grabbed by two dark claws that Raven summoned and lifted up into the air. But to their bewilderment, the two kept trying to land a blow on the other.

"Raven, let me go! I wanna keep fighting!" cried Robin with an odd excitement. "Please! Let me!"

Raven's mouth dropped as she stared at her leader's request. "…Robin, why?"

"I don't know!" replied Robin, struggling against his bonds. "I just want to!"

"That doesn't make a lot of sense, Rob," commented Argent.

"You don't know because you don't understand vampires, love," said Sin, also fighting to get free. "It's in our blood to fight, its how we've survived for so long. It's so engrained in our beings that we simply must!" He flashed her a fanged smile. "Let us go…please."

"Do not, Raven!" said Starfire. "That vampire cannot be trusted."

Raven did not know why she did it, but she listened to the vampire and ignored her redheaded friend. She let the two go…

Sin's eyes glowed with excitement, as did Robin's singular eye, and they two went right back to fighting each other, ignoring the three girls completely.

"Raven! Why did you do that?" gasped Starfire.

Raven remained quiet and just watched the fight with an odd expression. To anyone, especially Argent who knew Raven better than anyone, could read her, even when she masked her face with coldness. She could make out the confusion edged around Raven's eyes and she was shocked to see…fascination?" Yes, there was fascination shining in her cool lavender eyes, as if she was…liking the fight.

"Raven…what's the matter?" whispered Argent, leaning in close to her empath friend so Starfire couldn't hear.

Raven snapped out of her odd daze and gazed over Argent. "I…I think…" She stopped herself, not daring to voice what she was thinking at that moment. She looked at the two fighters with her cold mask now ruling he face. "You two need to stop this…they'll be plenty of time for you to beat each other to a bloody plump."

It was Sin who stopped first, grabbing Robin's fists and twirling his arms around to pin him against his chest and trap him. "The lady's right…I need to explain a few things before it gets late."

Robin fought against him for a few more moments, but soon his struggling slowed as reason began to come back to him. "…I…I never felt wanting to fight so badly."

"That's one of the many things you will need to learn to control," remarked Sin, letting Robin go as soon as he was sure the turned hero wasn't gonna start fighting again.

He patted the top of Robin's head, as though he was a child, but considering he was far taller than Robin, it looked just like that. Robin batted his hand away from his head.

"I'm not a kid…" growled Robin.

Sin grinned down at him. "You are again…as a new vampire, my fledgling, you're considered a child in our eyes. So, yes, you are a kid." He grabbed and pinched Robin's cheek.

Robin growled threateningly and swung a fist at the vampire, who caught it and laughed at the frustrated newborn vampire.

"Don't start that again…" hissed Raven, letting anger slip into her voice.

Robin gawked at his empath friend while Sin looked quite curiously at her before his grin turned to an evil smirk. He let go of Robin and bowed his head to the empath. "My apologizes…"

Raven just narrowed her eyes and marched back into the tower, but not before briefly touching Argent with a shaky hand which she held with her cloak as she passed by the silver-skinned girl. As casual as she could, Argent followed Raven back into the tower.

"Umm…could you unfreeze me?" squeaked Starfire.

Sin walked by her and tapped her forehead and she felt her body return to her control. "Sure thing, little mouse." He continued on but turned his head to the side to address Robin. "Come along, my boy…a whole new world awaits you…" then he vanished through the tower's front entrance.

---

Argent trailed quickly after Raven's fleeting frame. The empath was like a ghost as she disappeared down the hallway just to reappear in her vision as soon as she rounded a corner. Soon, she caught up to Raven in her room, who was kneeling at the edge of her bed, shaking controllably.

"Oh, Rae-love…I should have gotten here sooner," moaned Argent in sympathy as she kneeled down to Raven, stroking her silky hair.

"…Was forced…when I was bitten…it drained me," groaned Raven, clawing at her bed-sheets. "I can't hold it back…I can't…."

"Shush…" whispered Argent affectionately. "I understand…I'm here now, you don't have to hold back…let me help you."

Raven slowly turned her head and it didn't surprise the plasma-wielder one bit where once lavender eyes were, were now glowing orbs of red. Argent pulled Raven to her and began rubbing her body tenderly, smiling as the empath meowed at her touch and clawed at her for more, causing Argent to start moaning in pleasure. It was then, as she felt her body become aroused…when her body was heating up from the stimulation…that she felt Raven clamp her teeth on her chest…

---

A/N: Ah, there we are, Robin's awake, Sin is recognized…and Raven…hmm, must wonder what has come over her, huh? Well, only time will tell…So please leave me a review of your thoughts and feelings, and then I'll see to having the next post out soon. I hope you enjoyed and look forward to your replies.

Oh, and I'm looking for someone to beta for me, I don't have enough time to go over all my work, and it leaves me burning out of energy every time I have to worry about mistakes all the time, so if anyone is interested PM me.

Another thing I wish to add is I'm looking for people who'd be interested joining my RPing site. The link is on my profiles and if anyone wishes to talk to me, I'm on there the most and is the best way really to contact me. Hope to see some of you there. Till then…


	5. Requiem of Desire

**Disclaimer:** I don't own or claim any rights to Teen Titans. They are the rightful property of Cartoon Network and DC Comics. Rightful, and only claim, is to the plot and the following OCs: Sin.

A/N: Sry for the delay...here's what everyone is waiting for! Yeah that was a short response to you all....XD! ENJOY!!

**********

**Requiem of Desire**

It always stung at first whenever Raven bit her and it always would, but she knew that the minor pain would quickly vanish as it always did. She would pet Raven's lovely long dark hair as she locked her teeth on her chest and inhaled the pain. Yes, she literally inhaled the pain she inflicted on Argent along with the emotions that came along with it. She'd tighten her teeth until it would threaten to break her silver skin, which on a few occasions she had when she was really excited, this one was of those few times. She let Raven pin her down on her back as her teeth cut into her flesh and enlisted a short cry of agony from the plasma-wielder which soon merged into a whimper of lust. Raven drank that emotion in, too. She drank whatever rolled through Argent like it was a sweet, exotic wine. She let it roll around in her mouth like the blood that was pooling slowly in it.

The emotions the dark empath drank filled her with so much ecstasy and energy, igniting her dark blood to heal up her still tendered throat completely and the bruises she received. It also filled her like no food or drink ever could hope to quench for her, but unlike food, this source rushed throughout her into body, sending pleasurable pulses up and down her spine to the point her frame was arching against Argent's. This same pleasure she shared with Argent to repay the pain she inflicted on her, using her hands to transfer the pleasure in places on the silver-skinned girl that would maximize the affect.

Raven soon had her fill and licked around the bite as she swallowed the small mouth full of blood, then she used her powers to heal the bite, leaving behind perfect silver skin. She hovered over Argent as she let the sensations roll over her body and let the energy satisfy…that thing…

In her state, she didn't care about that part of her right now, only the moment and the person under her. She looked at the flushed expression her friend and semi-lover had over her face, and felt some joy that she could do something good with this dark need of hers. She caressed her cheek with her fingers until she calmed down and kissed the corner of her mouth tenderly.

That was how it started…a simple chaste kiss on the corner of the lips.

After her break-up with Beast Boy, she had nearly closed up entirely and fell into a deep, solicited depression, but her friends, her loved one, saved her from herself. Robin, with the bond could trust him and knew he would never hurt her. With Argent…it began as mere close friendship, but after that breakup, something dark awoke inside her…and it craved. It forced her body to start 'feeding' on the emotions her empathy picked up, but mostly pain…or desire. Those were the two things that satisfied it the quickest and the longest. She tried simple emotions like happiness and even the deep, bitter sadness in her heart from her last relationship, but to the thing, those were just appetizers and it made the need all the more stronger. Then one day, it was becoming too much for her to handle and she needed to do something to deal with the thing…That was when she confessed to Argent, and the silver-skinned Titan proved to her she wanted to be more than just a friend, and would do anything for her. After that confession, Raven kissed Argent gently on the corner of her mouth…and that kiss led to so many wondrous moments for the two.

It was a perfect relationship for them as it turned out Argent had a slight fetish for pain when making love, and Raven could feed that part of her and no one on the team would ever know. The worst was they all thought she turned into a lesbian, and that she could deal with that as it was partly true, but that didn't mean she would just go after any woman. Argent was the only one she felt anything like that for, and she believed she would be the only one. Argent said flat out after they 'fed the beast' as she called it, that she was bisexual, and didn't care who the affection was from so long as their feelings were true. She never pushed Raven either in the relationship, just as far as she was ready to go, and although they have had many moments like this, they've only gone as far as kissing, heavy petting and groping. Usually, after Rave n was done feeding, the two were satisfied enough to ever want to go further.

Argent sighed happily and pulled Raven down on top of her body, wrapping a leg around hers, and petting her long hair once more. "That was nice…"

"Mmm," purred Raven, stroking Argent's collarbone with one finger idly.

Argent smiled at her friend's peaceful expression. It had made her feel so glad she was able to give Raven the affection and love she deserved, but now she soon felt bad that she was the one that would ruin this moment. "…Come on, Rae-love, we gotta get back to the others quickly…they're gonna wonder where we ducked off to."

Raven groaned and shook her head in agreement. "…Yeah." She begrudgingly got off Argent and started fixing her clothes and straighten out her hair.

Argent watched her for a moment with a hungry smile as she too worked on fixing her clothes, giggling when she found the front of her corset had somehow got yanked down. "I think someone was a bit _too_ eager this time…"

Raven cocked her head to the side in confusion before she turned to see the state Argent was in and blushed heavily.

"…Oh…heh, sorry."

Argent licked her lips teasingly and toyed with the front of her corset before she fixed it, so it once again covered her healthy chest.

Raven remained silent but her eyes watched her actions and a sparkle of heat flash through her cool amethyst eyes. Argent caught the look and sauntered up to Raven and kissed her softly on the lips. "…Maybe we can have another go if everything turns out well for Robbie."

Raven faintly nodded and pulled away from Argent and the two made their way back to the others. They found Robin and Starfire with Sin in the Common Room. Said vampire was grinning like the Cat-that-ate-the-Canary at Starfire, who looked on edge and hiding slightly behind Robin.

"Umm, what's wrong with Starfire?" asked Raven, walking over to Robin.

Robin leaned forward and almost whispered it to her. "…He asked what her blood tasted like."

Raven stared blankly at him and then turned her look on the vampire, who greeted her look with a sinister one.

"…Okay," uttered Raven.

She was about to forget the whole thing, when Sin strolled right up to her and widened his grin at her.

"…You're invading my personal space," growled Raven.

Sin chuckled and leaned down so he was further invading her space. "…I just wanted to let you know..." he raised a long finger and ran it quickly over her chin and showed it to her, coated in blood. "…About that."

Raven widened her eyes and quickly wiped her mouth, having gotten to check her face and mentally slapping herself. She hadn't even thought to clean your mouth before leaving her room. She did thank that there wasn't much on her mouth and her dark clothes would easily hide the bloodstains.

"What is the matter, Raven?" asked Starfire worriedly, trying to see what she was trying to clean away.

"Nothing," growled Raven, hiding her bloody sleeve inside her cloak, glaring at the grinning vampire.

Robin wondered about it until something in the air caused his nostrils to flare excitedly. He felt his body moving before he realized he was toward the smell, sniffing deeply the heavenly scent until a hand grabbed his shoulder.

"I think you've had enough, young man. We don't want to be known as a glutton, and gluttony is a sin, after all....heh, heh!"

Robin glared at him. "What are you talking about? I was just…wait, what was I doing?"

Sin held up the finger he used to wipe the blood of Raven's chin to his face. "You were drawn by this."

Robin looked horrified at the blood on his finger, then at Raven, rushing over to her faster than anyone had ever seen him move. "Raven, are you okay!? You're still not hurting, are you?!"

It took a moment for Raven to get over the shock of Robin's frantic concern, but then she soon realized he was just feeling sorry for what he did when he was possessed, and most likely, felt responsible for what that revenant tried to do. At least, that's what she had to tell herself before letting any other feeling make her believe something else…something she knew could never be.

"I'm fine, Robin," replied Raven stoically. "I must have gotten more blood all over me than I thought."

"Raven, I'm…" His voice failed him as he lowered his head in shame.

"You weren't in control of your actions when I was attacked, Robin," stated Raven, softening her voice slightly for him. "I know you'd never hurt me or any of us intentionally." Then she placed a hand on his arm. "So don't beat yourself up for it, okay? You're back and that's all that matters."

Robin lifted his gaze and smiled weakly. "All right..."

Starfire watched the two for a moment, at first thinking nothing about the tenderness the two were showing each other. After all, Robin had literally dove into the hell that Trigon created and brought her back to the world. It probably was no different than what Raven had done when she dove into his mind to find wherever his spirit went...right? She had no problem of her friends showing affection, as that was her people's way and were very open with their emotions, yet...something was slightly different about the way Raven was gazing at her man...

The moment was broken when she felt cold arms hug her. "Aww, isn't it so sweet....what a close bond they have...I'm envious...oh, wait, another sin..._HAHAHAHAHA_!"

Starfire paled and let out the most girlish shriek she's ever made in her life. It was so piercing it made Sin fall down on his rear, holding his hands over his ears. "Ow! Fuck, you're loud!" He then glared at Robin. "Is this the torment you put your fellow teammates through when you make her scream in bed?"

Robin just gaped his mouth at the vampire, then his left eyebrow twitched before he stalked over and punched the vampire over the head. "I do not!" He looked over at Robin and Argent and was surprised to see them both blushing and averting their gaze from his. "Do I?"

"We plead the fifth," the two girls said simultaneously.

Robin groaned.

Sin was on the floor now having a good laugh at Robin's expense. He soon stopped when a little black blur buzzed out of nowhere and pounced on him. The vampire stopped and smiled at the black cat that was purring its head off.

"Sparda, there you are!"

"Sparda?" uttered Robin.

"Your new pet," answered Raven.

Sin pet the cat affectionately but soon stopped when the cat crawled up to his ear, he sat silently as the cat did, as if it was whispering something to him. When the cat moved away it looked at Raven and Argent with the widest set of eyes. Sin too looked slightly wide eyed at the two and soon grinned devilishly while petting the cat. The look was too knowing for Raven to like and that grin confirmed he somehow knew what she had been up to with Argent.

Thankfully, she was saved when Starfire kneeled down next to Sin and squealed, "He's so cute!!"

Raven rolled her eyes, as did the others, and it looked like the cat also rolled his red eyes.

Sin kept on grinning as he suddenly floated back to his feet, stroking the cat's neck to cause more purring from him. He chuckled as that action caused them all to jump back in fright.

"Cool, huh?" chuckled Sin, then locking his attention on Robin. "Just a mere fraction of what you will be able to do once you've adapted, Robin."

"...Look, I appreciate your help but I need to change..." Robin was cut off when Sin glared at him coldly.

"There is no changing back, Robin. You accepted the Embrace and there is no changing back, no matter what you've heard or read from other humans," stated Sin darkly. "Your entire being was changed into a vampire...and no crosses or prayers, even magic can reverse this."

Robin looked ready to argue more but was once more stopped by Sin's cold stare.

"Yes, you Titans are known to do the impossible but this is entirely different," said Sin. "...The only option is true death, and many have tried to fight it and find a way...only to come to that final fate." His amused red eyes glazed over for a brief moment before they hardened back to their sinister gleam. "I'm stopping this action now before you try anything, Robin, and I will use whatever means to keep you from doing anything stupid...as any caring parent would."

"Look, I don't know what you're thinking, but I'm not going to let some stranger suddenly start acting like he's my parent...it's freaking me out," stated Robin sternly.

Sin shook his head in disappointment. "You have a lot to learn...Richard."

That threw everyone off guard.

"What...? How do you know my real name?" demanded Robin.

"The Embrace, Richard. When your blood entered my heart, it told me everything about you, everything I would need to properly raise you in our dark world," replied Sin, walking up him. "It's how we have children, my boy. When we sire a vampire we give them our blood, our energy, making them bound to our blood. So, yes, I am your parent in that sense."

Robin blinked unbelievingly.

Sin smiled and started patting his head. Robin growled and smacked his hand off his head.

"Temper, temper, young man," snickered Sin.

Robin grunted in annoyance and crossed his arms over his chest. "Whatever..." This attention was soon drawn to the cat in Sin's arms. "So why the pet?"

Sin shrugged. "Just wanted you to have a pet. I figured it would be a nice way to break the ice and start things off. " He handed Sparda to Robin, who took him and smiled when the cat started purring louder. "And you'll find he's more than what he seems, but that's for another time to explain. For now, just enjoy his company."

Robin started smiling when Sparda rubbed his head against his chest. "...Heh."

Sin chuckled as he walked by Robin, leaving them be to get familiar with each other. Starfire took his place and reached out to pet the cat and it started purring just as loudly for her. It was then when Raven's T-Com alerted her of an incoming call. She took it out and flipped it opened, immediately seeing Cyborg in the viewing screen.

_"Yo, Raven! We just finished up here, has that weirdo vampire come by yet?" _wondered Cyborg.

"Uh, yeah he did, in fact..." Raven looked to her left to see Sin standing right next to her and glaring at her T-Com, yet he smiled down at it sinisterly. "...He's standing right next to me...and he heard what you called him."

_"Whoops...uh, my bad," _uttered Cyborg nervously, looking sheepishly.

"Oh, that's all right. It isn't often when a Tin-man reject from Oz insults me, so I found it rather funny, rusty!" snickered Sin.

_"Tin-man reject? Rusty!? Ah, hell no! I'm gonna knock his face in when I get my hands on..." _

Raven sighed and turned off her T-Com, glaring annoyingly at Sin, who just snickered darkly.

"That'll get his plated rear here quicker," replied Sin, then addressed Robin. "Oh, by the way...I have something more for you, Robin. In honor of your Embrace, I had prepared something custom-made for you." He snapped his fingers and his shadow rose up and changed into is semi-humanoid form, in one of its talons was an armored case it pulled out of itself. He took the case from his shadow, which immediately descended back down to the ground. "Why don't you go change...I think it would make your returning comrades more at ease if you weren't such as mess."

"Huh?" uttered Robin, then looked down at his blood-soaked body and ruined costume. "Uh, yeah...I could use a shower and a change of clothes."

Sin handed him the case. "Change into what is in here, you'll be glad I brought them."

Robin gave him a puzzling look but then shrugged it off and took the case from him. "I'll be right back, guys."

"I'll come with you!" offered Starfire happily, quickly wrapping her arms around his arm, but careful to not knock Sparda off him.

"Uh, okay," replied Robin, then the two processed to his room.

She didn't mean to but Raven followed them with her eyes as the two departed. Everything was going back to normal for her...Robin was fine once more and as always, Starfire was there at his side...as she should be. Yet, no matter how much they all went through, the ordeals they were forced to face, and as much as she knew her friends were so happy together, she wished just once that she could have...

Her thoughts were instantly interrupted when a cold hand rested itself on her shoulder.

"Why don't you go with them and make sure nothing funny happens," suggested Sin in a serious, soft tone.

"Wha..why should I?" wondered Raven.

"If something went out of hand, you'd be the first to calm Robin down if he lost it," replied Sin. "As a new vampire, he'll have instincts that he won't understand and they'll make him want to do things he normally wouldn't think of." He leaned in closer. "As his friend...his bond-mate...you'd be the only one who'd truly understand him and can explain things far better than I can. I wish to help him...I really do, Raven, but I know that there are some things I cannot do much for him yet." He squeezed her shoulder softy. "Would you help me in this?"

Raven was once more bewildered by this vampire. When they first met, he was a mysterious, almost crazy-acting creature of darkness, then that craziness was confirmed more when he fought Robin like an obsessive berserker, now he was acting like a caring father, at least this was how she imagined a father would act when concerned for their child...

"Er, yeah...yeah, I'll help," replied Raven, wishing for forget that last thought entirely.

She gently shrugged his hand off and floated after the two departing lovers.

Sin watched her with an analyzing look as she left and slowly he grinned, and then turned to Argent, who had tried to look like she hadn't notice him eyeing her best friend and lover. His grinned widened into his devilish one.

"...May I ask you something?" asked Sin with a sadistic gleam in his eyes.

Argent gulped. "....Umm, I guess."

"What does your blood taste like?" purred Sin, now smiling evilly at her and exposing his fangs.

************

Raven quietly made her way back to the Living Quarters. As she entered the hall, she saw Starfire standing outside the bathroom that the others would usually use, holding Sparda. Why none of them thought to just install their own private bathrooms in their rooms, like she did, was beyond her. It would have been easier that way, not to mention less embarrassing should an awkward incident occur. She floated over to Starfire and nodded her head at the bathroom door.

"Is he okay?" she asked.

Starfire sighed somewhat and nodded, petting Sparda some. "I think so. He said he wanted to be alone while he bathed. I tried to insist that I stay with him...in case he needs me, but he shut the door on me before I could get in with him."

"Wow, then he's definitely not okay if he won't let you shower with him," drawled Raven.

Starfire glared at her friend for a moment before taking it in good humor and laughing some. "I guess he still must be very traumatized from this...change...that's come over him. But once we change him back, everything will be back to the way it was."

"Yeah, things will return...wait a minute? Star, we just went over this with Sin...Robin can't change back into a human. It's not possible," reminded Raven with a startled look.

"We will find a way, I'm sure we will find a cure to his condition. We've done amazing things before so this will be nothing compared to them," replied Starfire with a confident smile, looking back at the bathroom door

Raven could only stare at her friend in worry and she felt someone's presence and it took a moment for her to realize it was Robin. The next moment she felt a wave of sorrow and anguish from him and she understood why. He must have heard Starfire and it hurt him. She would feel that way, too, if the one closest to her just talked as if you were some diseased thing, something that needed to be treated carefully, like someone who was contaminated with rabies. It worried her more that Starfire might start treating Robin the wrong way. What if she tried to make him 'not' be a vampire? She honestly did not pass it by Starfire to do exactly that. She was a great person, someone she would trust her life with, but when it came to certain things...she'd block them out, until it was fixed to her satisfaction. She knew she needed to get her to understand that Robin could not return to being normal, that he will be something different from the old Robin she knew.

"Star, you need to start thinking about what it will be like with Robin as a vampire," stated Raven. "He can't be human anymore and will need to do things in order to survive as one. We have no other choice now."

Starfire gave her a look, one she never would have suspected the redhead possessing. It was one she was familiar with as she would often use it on Beast Boy when he said something dumb.

"Friend Raven, of course we will cure beloved Robin," replied Starfire, speaking in a tone that Raven didn't like for one second. "He will return to who he was as soon as we find his cure."

"Star, he still is who he is, he's just got a different nature now," reprimanded Raven, not liking what this conversation was revealing to her.

Starfire waved it off. "He will return to normal and we can put this all behind us. Once he's back to being human, we can cure Sin, and he can be human, too. Then he won't need to act like Robin's self-claimed father, and can live like everyone else."

Now Raven was just staring at her friend with even more worry. "I don't believe that is gonna work, Starfire. Somehow I get the feeling that Sin likes what he is and he seems to be deeply concerned for Robin. I don't think he's got any ill-intend toward him or us for that matter. If he did, he'd be acting like all the villains we've come across."

Starfire whipped around and huffed at her. "Why are you denying that we cannot fix, beloved Robin? He cannot stay as he is now. That isn't him! He was a human! Not a blood-craving..." she quickly stopped herself when the door slid open.

"...Monster, Starfire?" finished Robin as he emerged from the bathroom.

Neither Raven or Starfire made a reply when he stepped out. Both were too awed by the change of attire that he was now wearing. In place of his old colorful costume was now a completely black one. The top piece was a long-sleeve black shirt and the bottom was much like his old green ones. Over the top piece was a sleeveless trench-coat with sliver buckles on the three belt-straps around the waist. His boots were replaced with leather ones and plated much in the same fashion as Sin's, only in place of the belts that made up the legging, these just had metal plates running up the shins, up to the spiked kneepiece. In place of his long green gloves were long, metal-stubbed leather gloves; fingerless at the ends, which gave everyone a view of his oddly long fingernails. Around his upper arms were three grey buckled belts and under the trench-coat was a grey chest-plate with folding plates running down over his abdomen. The only thing familiar that he wore was his Utility-belt, but this too was slightly different as it was grey like his chest-plate and in the center-piece had a symbol of an eye with lines falling down the corners, as if crying. The biggest difference of his entire costume was instead of his domino mask, he now had a black metal mask that covered the right side of his face, covering his missing eye and cheek completely, but the mask had been shaped to resemble a beastly face with a wide-eye.

Raven was completely awed by the new change and felt her cheeks warm up at the image of this young dark warrior. _Oh Azar...he looks really hot in black!_

She must had been gazing at him too long because he started smiling at her. "I guess this meets your approval?"

"Oh yeah..." purred Raven absentmindedly and then blushed when she realized what she just said...and how she said it. She immediately looked away and pulled her hood over her head to hide her embarrassment.

Robin laughed lightly and looked to Starfire for her approval, but quickly frowned. She was staring at him completely differently than the way Raven had. Her look was more a frown than anything.

"I guess it is a bit too dark, huh?" murmured Robin.

"Yes, I must admit it is," replied Starfire sharply, putting down Sparda, who trudged over to rub against Robin's leg. "I think it would be better if you changed into something else."

Robin looked down at himself. "But I actually kinda like it. It fits me perfectly and it doesn't seem to hinder my movement at all, and the additional armor isn't a bad idea."

"Then at least change that mask, please, Robin," said Starfire.

Robin touched his new mask, unknowingly rubbing where his eye once was. "...No."

"Why not?" asked Starfire, placing her hands on her hips.

"...I just don't, okay?" growled Robin somewhat, unconsciously snarling and flashing his fangs at her.

Starfire gasped in fright and floated away from him. "...I-I am sorry, Robin!"

Robin growled at himself and looked away in shame. "No, I didn't mean to act like that...That wasn't me. Please, forgive me, Star."

Starfire hesitantly walked up to him and placed her hands hand tenderly on his shoulders. "It was not your fault, Robin. It's your condition that's to blame. I swear we will cure it as soon as we can."

Raven, through her bond, felt the wave of grief that went through Robin. He sighed and placed his hands on top of hers.

"...I hope there is, Starfire," admitted Robin, before squeezing her hands. "...B-But if I have to stay like this...We'll have to be careful."

Starfire squeezed his shoulders. "We will cure you, Robin. We will find a way, I know there is a way...but for now, we will just have to learn to deal with this."

Had Starfire paid closer attention to his expressions, she would have seen the look of pain that crossed over the uncovered side of his face. His one eye lowered and averted her face so she didn't see it. "Yeah..."

"Come on, Robin! Let us be happy and smile! You are still here with your friends and me, and we will all be here for you!" beamed Starfire.

He tried to smile and when he did, he forgot about his fangs and flashed them at her once more. She jerked away from him and shook in fright, but then realized what she did and looked ashamed.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Robin! I am not used to your fangs...they startled me," apologized Starfire.

He hid his fangs and nodded. "That's okay, Star...I'm not used to them, either."

"Maybe we can have them removed, that way it would be easier to..."

She was stopped when Raven cut her off. "It be a waste of time to defang a vampire. They'd just grow back as vampires have a regenerative ability, or at least that's what they're claimed to have." She stared sternly at Starfire, then softened them some. "Let's go back to the Common Room and wait for everyone, we'll figure this all out as a team, like we always do."

"That is right!" exclaimed Starfire. "We've done amazing things as a team, so it will be no time at all before we have Robin back to being normal!" She smiled to herself and floated off return to the Common Room, looking as confident as ever.

As soon as she was out of sight, Robin sighed deeply and leaned against the bathroom door.

"Robin...?" said Raven with concern.

"S-She's scared of me, Raven," mourned Robin, staring at his hands. "She's scared of what I am..."

"No, I'm sure she's just worried over you, that's all..." assured Raven, wishing to not admit that her empathy had picked up the fear she sensed in her redheaded friend.

"No, Raven...I felt it! I knew she was scared...almost like a taste in my mouth!" uttered Robin, running a hand over his face. "It was intoxicating...and...AND I LIKED IT!" He slammed the back side of his fist into the wall, then halted in shock when his fist went right through it, leaving a very large hole around where his fist was now. "...Oh god." He slowly drew back his fist and just stared at the hole. He just meant to slam his fist against the wall, but his new strength proved to be greater than he expected. Had he put all his strength into that strike...into a person...he'd have annihilated whatever he struck.

"What have I allowed to become of me?" awed Robin in fear.

"Robin..." whispered Raven, gently touching the hand he used to punch the hole. "...You did what you had to do to survive, to stay with us." She gently squeezed his hand, surprised that his skin still was warm to the touch. "And although you may have become a vampire...I'm still...g-glad you're still with us."

Robin was slowly washed over by a wave of something that made him smile at her that emitted from her. It wrapped around him like a velvet blanket of warmth, and the more he held Raven, the more this feeling grew...

"Thanks, Raven...That's what I really needed to hear," whispered Robin.

Raven averted her eyes from his as she spoke. "No matter what, Robin...if you need anything...I mean, I'd..."

She was interrupted from her fumbling statement when a loud scream echoed through the tower.

"Starfire!" shouted Robin in fear, then dashed down the hallway faster than Raven could register with her vision.

The only sign that he had once stood right before her was the still tingling warmth around her hand and her cloak slightly kicked up by the current he made from his departure.

"Whoa..." awed Raven before she levitated after him.

Robin arrived to the Common Room and gawked at the scene of Starfire crying and on her knees, staring at Sin...who had Argent in his arms and his mouth stained red...

"Y-You killed her!" cried Starfire.

The limped form of Argent, whose neck was dripping with redness, started to shake.

"Ohh, I think my new slave is about to wake up!" grinned Sin evilly, licking his stained lips.

The body of Argent slowly stood up, with a little help from Sin, and wobbled toward Starfire, its head drooped down and arms reaching out for the redhead.

"Why don't you have a light snack on the alien hottie," commanded Sin, grinned devilishly down at the alien princess.

"Yes...master," slurred Argent with a raspy voice.

Starfire began crawling madly away from the sliver-skinned titan. "No...no! This cannot be happening!"

"Must eat....brains!!" cried Argent...right before she fell to her knees and collapsed with laughter. "Oh god! Your face! You should see your face! Hahahahaha!"

Right behind her was Sin, holding his sides in pain from laughing too hard. "Oh shit! I wish I had remembered to bring a camera! _AHAHAHAHAHA!!!_"

Starfire just stared in shock, her brain not registering what had really happened, until her wide green eyes finally blinked, then they glowed with anger. "THAT WAS NOT AT ALL FUNNY!"

"YES, IT WAS!!" shouted both Sin and Argent, pointing at her simultaneously before breaking out with more laughter.

Raven arrived just after that and just gaped at the two laughing on the floor. "Uh...did I miss something?"

Robin, who looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh, snickered, "...Kinda...heh, heh!"

When the two tricksters had stopped laughing, Sin used a handkerchief to clean off the 'blood' around his mouth, Argent went to the kitchen to wipe off the mess around her neck, coming back smiling mischievously at Starfire.

"Sorry, red...just couldn't help myself when Sin suggested we play a prank," snickered Argent, walking over to the couch and pulling out a bottle of ketchup she had hidden. "Oh man! I'm gonna be laughing about this one for weeks!"

Starfire huffed at her and crossed her arms with indignity.

Robin just walked over and gave Argent a high-five. "Nice one, Argent."

"Thanks, but the credit goes to our friend the vampire here," replied Argent, bowing theatrically to Sin.

He responded with a grin and shrugged. "What can I say...I love a good laugh."

"Okay, but next time don't pick a prank that'll send someone into a state of panic," cautioned Robin.

"But my boy! Those are the best kinds of pranks!" countered Sin, chuckling deeply. "Life is no fun when you can't find any humor."

Just then, Cyborg and the rest of the Titans came barging into the Common Room. Cyborg scanned the room until he spotted the grinning vampire and snarled.

"There you are!"

"Here I am!" challenged Sin mockingly. "...What now, Tin-man? Gonna make me tap my heels and wish for home?"

"Oh I'll do you one better than tap your heels!" growled Cyborg, cracking his knuckles as he stormed over to the vampire. "I'll give you one free ticket to the Knuckles-Express!"

He reared back his hand into a tight fist and swung it right at the grinning vampire's face. Sin did nothing in the slightest to halt the approaching fist save for grin wider. The fist made contact to his face and the force of the blow sent his long bangs flying back, giving everyone a full view of his amused face before the first covered it.

"BOOYA!!" shouted Cyborg triumphantly.

Everyone felt a bit sorry for the vampire just then, save for the metallic Titan. They knew Cyborg didn't hold back in that punch, and anyone who has seen Cyborg fight, knew when he punched something with that much force that whatever got struck would be demolished. Raven was about to go reprimand Cyborg for using such hostile force against him, but the soft chuckle from Sin halted anyone from moving. He chuckled as he brushed Cyborg's fist from his face and grinned at him evilly just as his bangs settled back down over his face. Cyborg gawked as he saw his punch hadn't left a single mark on his grinning, pale face. Sin gazed at his shocked expression with great amusement and then his eyes flashed bright red, scaring the cybernetic Titan and making him nearly fall down in fright.

Sin chuckled wickedly. "Nice punch, but next time roll your shoulder more into it, otherwise all you do is waste what energy you had put into the strike. But I admit, that made my face tingle a bit." He took a step toward Cyborg and smirked more when the metallic Titan started fumbling back. He started toward him again when he sidestepped suddenly to dodge a green tiger that nearly sank its fangs into his shoulder.

"Oh, so the kitty wants to play now, hmm?" mocked Sin.

"You're gonna turn Robin back into a human...or I'll do it the old fashion way," declared Beast Boy.

"Oh? And what is the old fashion way?" wondered Sin with a humoring tone.

Beast Boy growled lowly. "Simple, anyone knows that if you kill the original vampire, anyone he has turned will return back to normal!"

Sin gave him a deadpanned look. "...You read too many comic books, kid."

Beast Boy took a threatening step forward, snapping his jaw warningly. "I'm not kidding."

"As you weren't present when I explained to the ladies and Robin, I'll excuse your idiocy," said Sin just before he dodged another lunge from Beast Boy, who then was caught and surrounded by black energy.

"Settle down, you nitwit," grumbled Raven, dropping him down roughly on the floor.

"Ow! Raven, what the hell?" growled Beast Boy.

"Killing him isn't gonna do a thing and I doubt you could actually kill him" replied Raven annoyingly. "He'd just took a straight punch in the face from Cyborg and not look one bit phased, you think you can do better?"

Beast Boy growled some at her, surprising everyone. He even looked ready to pounce...at her. This startled even Raven as she gasped faintly. No one expected the next thing to happen; one moment Beast Boy had looked ready to leap, the next he was tackled by a black blur and pinned by the neck by Robin, snarling and baring his new fangs at the green tiger.

"How dare you show your fangs to a teammate!" snarled Robin evilly, squeezing the tiger's thick neck.

Beast Boy gasped and morphed back into his human form. "HEY! Gah, what the hell....I..I can't breathe!"

Robin snarled more at Beast Boy and threw him down against the ground. "You're lucky I'm not doing worse for that attitude you showed toward Raven!"

"Dude, I was trying to help you out! Everyone knows that if you kill the vampire, everything goes back to normal!" stated Beast Boy, rubbing his bruising throat.

"Robin! You should not have been so rough with Beast Boy!" defended Starfire, running over to the green-furred changeling. "Yes, that was mean of him to act that way, but you did not have to hurt him!"

"..I-I didn't mean to..." stammered Robin, who looked confused.

He really hadn't meant to attack Beast Boy, but something snapped in him when he looked about to attack Raven, he just reacted. The very thought of her in danger caused him made want to hurt whatever threatened her.

Starfire opened her mouth to say more, but the entire room filled with a sense of doom.

_**"I'm beginning to lose my patience,"**_ whispered Sin evilly, glaring down at them all with shining red eyes. _**"This will be my final time explaining....THIS!!!" **_His last word came out as a roar directed at Starfire, silencing her and nearly blowing her back. _**"Robin has chosen, the Embrace has been accepted and fulfilled, he shall and always will be from this point on...a true vampire! And nothing you, you stupid, silly little girl, can do to change that!"**_ His eyes glowed a menacing red as he slowly stalked over to her. When he neared her, he softly cupped her chin but his eyes bore a promise of wicked things. _**"Never reprimand my child again...It is not your place and if you ever do again..." **_He smiled at her as his fangs extended. _**"I'll take it out on your sweet, soft hide, understood?"**_

Starfire trembled greatly and barely managed to nod.

Sin smiled and his fangs retracted. "Good girl!"

Argent leaned close enough to Raven. "He is one scary bloke..."

Raven merely nodded, keeping her eyes cautiously on Beast Boy, feeling unnerved by the way her ex-boyfriend had just moments ago behaved. She had seen him when he was angry, when he was sad, and mostly when he was happy, but that moment when he was ready to pounce at her...it was like he really intended to hurt her...

Sin must have sensed her unease with Beast Boy, as he shifted his gaze to the changeling and his shadow shot out from under him and it formed into its monstrous shape, posing its razor-like teeth and talons over him.

"Raven is right, Beast Boy. I can kill you with just my shadow before you could react or morph into whatever animal you deem fit to fight as," stated Sin with his grin returning on his face. "My shadow can render you to gory ribbons before you even got close to me...and don't mistake this threat as an empty one."

Beast Boy glared at him but conceded silently.

Sin then grinned and turned to everyone, retracting his shadow. "Now that we have that behind us, it's time we celebrate!"

"Celebrate? What is there to celebrate?" asked Jinx in wonder.

"Why, the return of your leader for one, and the birth of a vampire!" replied Sin, chuckling heartily before walking over to Robin and patting him on the head. "It's rare in this day and age for new vampires to be Embraced so this is a very special occasion!"

Robin growled at him, swatting his hand away from his head in irritation. "Humph, I'm not in a partying mood right now..."

"But you are in a foul mood, hmm?" remarked Sin.

"Yeah...no thanks to you," growled Robin darkly.

Sin slapped him over the head. "Then that just means you need a party to get your mind off things, moody boy!"

"Oww! You!" growled Robin in annoyance, rubbing the spot he struck.

"Yo, we don't know anything about you and I especially don't trust someone that turned my friend into a vampire," stated Cyborg. "With that said, we're not going to any party!"

"Did I say, any of you would be coming?" replied Sin. "This will be an exclusive party for Robin and I...and whoever he wishes to tag along, so unless he wishes you to join, you aren't invited."

"Say what? Of course, Robin's not...!"

"Sure, sounds like fun," cut in Robin, shocking everyone.

"Robin, dear!? You would go to with this monster to some place unknown?" gasped Starfire.

Robin averted his eyes from her. "I can feel emotions now, Star...Thanks to this _condition_ of mine, I can sense, no practically taste, what all of you are feeling right now. This whole time, it's been fear from most of you, but with him I haven't sensed anything bad. So he's not up to anything harmful."

"Humph, he's a vampire! He's probably gonna make you go drink someone's blood!" exclaimed Beast Boy heatedly.

"Let's ask him then instead of bickering," said Raven. "What kind of celebration will this be, Sin?"

Sin smiled at her. "I'm glad someone finally asked that. It will be held at my nightclub, Crimson Desires. I'm not into the doom and gloom thing that you humans label us vampires with. I prefer to simply enjoy my existence and to the fullest!"

"...Wait," uttered Argent. "You own Crimson Desires?"

"Yes, I do, silver-cheeks," winked Sin.

Argent just gapped at him. "Oh my god! I've always wanted to go there!"

"Is that a fact, well then, if Robin desires it, you may," replied Sin, nodding his head to her.

"Sure, she can come along," assured Robin, who was immediately hugged by Argent.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" exclaimed Argent happily. "You know you're gonna invite Raven, too, right?"

"Uh, of course Raven is coming along...I mean, if she wants to," answered Robin sheepishly.

"Somehow I feel you'll get into a lot of trouble if I don't, so I'll go," stated Raven, hiding her blush under her hood.

"Then it's settled! The four of us will go and..."

"And I want everyone here to coming along too," quickly added Robin.

"...Oh you're a buzz kill, son," grumbled Sin, sighing heavily and letting his head and shoulders slump.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" yelled Cyborg.

Sin straightened his back and brushed his bangs back with his right hand, sighing more. "You will be a bunch of drags, I can already tell. You'll be too much into keeping Robin from enjoying himself and wanting to just stay here in this boring tower until you've figured out how to deal with his change."

"....Dude, he can read minds," whispered Beast Boy in fear and awe.

Cyborg slapped himself in the face. "BB, shut it! We can't just go partying when Robin just got turned into a vampire! We need to do something to fix this!"

Sin rolled his eyes and then started walking to the exit. "Whatever, I'm not going to hang around all night listening to you drags yelling about something I've already stated cannot be fixed." He waved once at Robin without looking. "If you and whoever wants to come still want to, meet me at Crimson Desires. I'll let my people know to expect you there and let you in free, but only for tonight!" He literally disappeared from sight when he reached the exit.

"You're not going to this club, are you?" asked Starfire, looking at him expectantly.

Robin closed his eye and crossed his arms over his chest, looking deep in thought. "Look, if this is truly permanent, then he's the only one that can help me with this. I don't know what to expect now that I'm a vampire, much less know what I can do now or got to be careful of. I'm just as freaked out as all of you...but I got to think realistically." He opened his eye and looked straight at Starfire. "I sadly believe him when he said this can't be cured, because I could sense no waver of doubt in him...so it must be true."

"He could be faking it, Robin! He's a vampire, if he can do the same thing like you can about sensing emotions, then he's probably masking them to make you feel whatever he wants you to feel!" stated Beast Boy.

"He wasn't masking anything," informed Raven. "I would have sensed he was hiding something, but he wasn't. He was honest with us and he doesn't seem to be up to anything, at least not at the moment. And Robin is thinking rationally about this. Sin is the only one that can help Robin with this situation, so we can't deny his aid."

"So you're gonna willingly drink people's blood?" gawked Beast Boy, giving him a disgusted look.

"I don't know!" roared Robin, his remaining eye shining dangerously before it deemed back to a dull red. "I don't know what I'm going to do, and I was trying to avoid thinking about drinking blood for as long as I could, but thanks for bringing it up, Beast Boy!"

"Hey! I'm just trying to be a friend," defended Beast Boy.

"Yeah, and we've seen how well you've been acting like a friend when you nearly attacked someone you once called your girlfriend!" hissed Robin, pointing at Raven who looked away in shame.

"I...I wasn't going to do anything like that!" said Beast Boy, looking nervous and offended.

Robin grunted at him and started heading for the exit. "Whatever, I'm going to this club and see if I can't figure things out with Sin, anyone who wants to tag along, do so, otherwise, I'm outta here."

"Robin, no! I'll go with you," said Starfire quickly.

Robin looked back at her, gazing at her as if he wanted to say something about her joining him, but he refrained from saying it and shrugged it off and continued to the exit.

"Like hell I'm missing this chance! I've always wanted to get into Crimson Desire, and I sure as hell ain't gonna look a gift horse in the mouth!" stated Argent, quickly wrapping her arm around Raven's and dragging her along. "Besides, the place is supposed to be dark and mysterious, or so I heard from rumors about the place."

Raven perked up at that bit of news. "Sounds interesting already."

"Ah, hell! If you're going, Robin, then we're all going," declared Cyborg, shrugging his shoulders in defeat. "Come on ya'll, this might turn out fun." He started walking with them.

"That's the spirit!" beamed Argent.

"This is going to be the last thing but fun," grumbled Beast Boy, following behind them.

Kid Flash looked at Jinx. "Feel like cutting up a rug?"

"Always willing to go clubbing," replied Jinx, and the couple quickly joined them all.

The remaining two Titans just looked at each other and shrugged before silently agreeing to attend this unexpected event, figuring that it would be best to go than wait around bored out of their minds. They made their way to the Vehicle Bay and drove off into the city in the T-Car, save for Robin who took his R-Cycle, and Kid Flash who preferred to run to any place he wanted to go. Argent sat in the front passenger seat, giving Cyborg directions to the club, as she had been by it a few times. Starfire had insisted Robin join them in the T-Car but he felt he needed a little space until they found the club Sin mentioned, and he always felt better when on his R-Cycle and feeling the wind around him when he was under great distress. It also gave him time to sort through his mind when he was confused and unsure of things. What's more it got him away from everyone, mainly Starfire.

He couldn't feel their emotions now that he got some distance from them, and hers was the one he needed to get away the most. He was too new to this ability and it made him feel uneasy inside and unsure of how he felt himself. He couldn't process so many emotions at once and it left his own in a state of turmoil, and that drove him crazy. It left him unfocused and that would make him sloppy and could only lead to something fatal for him and his team. Batman drilled into him long ago one must be a master of his emotions, not a slave to them, or else they leave a man weak to his opponents; and criminals could quickly detect weakness and monopolize on it.

His emotions were wild right now and the more he tried to force them under his control, the more they seem to get out of hand. He grinded his teeth in frustration as they ravaged inside him, and then suddenly, he felt a calm spill into him, like a hole just opened up and sucked in the rapid emotions thrashing inside him. He blinked in wonder and found himself turning his head to the T-Car, in the back right passenger seat...where Raven was sitting. She was looking at him and had her hood down, gazing at him knowingly. He smiled at her and nodded his thanks, which she in turn returned and then placed a hand on her chest and took a slow deep breath in, then exhale slower. She repeated this, tapping her chest once until Robin finally realized she wanted him to do it, too. Gazing back on the road, he took a slow breath in and exhaled it out as Raven did. Already he could feel his sense of control return to him and the wild emotions were settling down, he continued this until he was sure he felt normal, then waved at Raven in gratitude. Again, she nodded her head to him and gave him a look that promised help.

He sighed in relief for the first time that night and thanked the stars above that he had a friend like Raven. He couldn't image what he'd be like if she wasn't a part of his life, or if she ever left...

Robin heard a loud honk and realized he hadn't been paying attention to the road, as a large semi-truck was charging right at him. He quickly swerved back into the proper lane that he had apparently drifted off from, sighing heavily. "I gotta keep it together..."

Kid Flash zoomed up beside him and hollered over the wind. "You okay, Robin!?"

Robin nodded. "Yeah! Just got too much going on in my head."

"I bet! I'd me a nutcase if I was in your shoes, man!" replied Kid Flash, giving him a sympathic smile. "We'll get through this, don't worry!"

"Thanks, Kid!" thanked Robin gratefully, glad for the support.

Kid Flash gave him a thumbs up and stayed by him in case he started drifting again and needed help.

After another five minutes of following Argent's directions, they soon found the club. When they parked the T-Car on the other side of the road across from the club, Robin examined the nightclub. At first glance, it looked like an old warehouse, but by looking more closely. The place was modeled on the front to resemble a castle or some kind of manor. A huge red neon sign reading, _**'Crimson Desires'**_,__hung just about five feet above the entrance. A line of people stood along the nightclub, leading from the doors to almost the end of the street. The doors looked strange to him as he looked at them more closely. There were two huge red doors with some kind of gothic-looking symbols written on them. Some of the symbols looked like snakes wrapped around panthers or some big cat. The door handles were made to resemble three snakes, coiling around each other. Their fangs bit into the doors, and their tails curled up in a form of an S for someone to grab and open the doors. The Titans walked up to the doors, finding a big muscular man stand guard in front of them. He had on only blue denim jeans and a black muscle shirt. He wore army boots and a buckled belt around his waist. His sleeves were rolled up, so people could see his huge muscular arms. Each arm was bigger than Cyborg's, and he stood a good six-two feet in height. He had a long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, and a slight bread and mustache around his mouth. Everything about this big man screamed bouncer. The Titans walked straight up to the doors and the big man held up a beefy hand, halting them.

"Whoa, kids! You've got to get in line just like everyone else," he grunted with a voice that sounded very rugged and dry.

"We were invited her by a guy named Sin," informed Robin, walking right up to the bouncer.

The bouncer gave him a critical look and then looked at the others behind him. "Are you bunch The Titans?"

"Yeah, we are," confirmed Robin.

The bouncer grunted, shrugging his massive shoulders. "Boss said you guys would be showing up and I was to let you and any who showed up with you go in right away." He turned around and reached for the handles, and he pulled the huge doors open with ease. The doors squeaked loudly and when they were barely cracked open, they were blasted by the loud noises inside and blinding flashing lights. The bouncer quickly stepped out of the way, holding his hand up at the line of disgruntled people, who were now yelling and screaming at the Titans for getting to go inside, to quiet down. "Ah, quiet down, you'll get inside soon!"

Robin took a deep heavy to steady his nerves. Already he could feel the waves of emotions from the people inside the club crash into him like a tidal wave, nearly physically knocking him back. Then a soft hand grasped his and he they once more drained away from him. Glancing over, he found Raven at his side giving him that same understanding look.

"Picture an endless cave in your mind, think of a gust of wind pulling in the unwanted feelings around you," said Raven loud enough over the loud, booming noise. "It'll help block it some..."

"Thanks Raven..." replied Robin in relief, squeezing her warm...soft hand. He quickly cleared his throat. "Ready to walk into the night?" he tried to make a joke about it to ease his nerves, but it didn't help much.

To his shock, Raven nodded confidentially, and his sensitive ears caught her whispering words even over the roaring music. "Wherever you go, I'll be there by you..."

Robin stared at her for a moment in wonder, not sure how to take that deep declaration. Then for some reason he smiled at her, then looked back at the other Titans. "Titans...Let's see what awaits us." And with Raven's hand still in his, they both walked through the threshold into a entirely different world.

************

A/N: Early Christmas present for everyone that's been waiting for this update. Once more, it's because I play way too much World of Warcraft, mainly as my stress release, as I've been under lots the past few weeks. Any of you WoW players who read my stuff wanna chat or play, whisper to _**Darkcry**_ on the **Eldre'Thalas** realm. Till then...


	6. Requiem of Wish

**Disclaimer**: I don't own or claim any rights to Teen Titans. They are the rightful property of Cartoon Network and DC Comics. Rightful, and only claim, is to the plot and the following OCs: Sin.

**A/N**: I wish to take this moment to thank everyone who has read and reviewed this story. Even more thanks goes to those have been very patient and supportive of this re-vamp. I do try my best to please my readers that are within reason. But a few things I wish to clarify: One, Robin is a newborn vampire, hence he will be reacting differently because of his darker nature and trying to adapt to it SLOWLY (I hate it when people just have a character suddenly adapt and become a total badass creature...loses the appeal in my view.) Two, NO! Raven is not a lesbian, she is bi-sexual, and only with Argent as there aren't many people in her life that she would open her heart to. (she's an adult and more mature now, so no teen dramas...get over it.) Three, everything will be explained in due time as to why everything is happening, just be a bit more patient. And Four...to the person that suggested a possible Rob/Rae/Argent pairing as this progress..._, I'm taking that under serious advisement. One more thing, Raven is not a vampire, she has demonic blood and that would make her have some traits that appear vampiric, but she's not. (once more this will all be explained as this story progresses.)

Finally...WoW...is...ADDICTING! _AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_

Ahem...er, on with the story! Don't look at me that way...I see you judging...-_-...Move on already!

* * *

**Requiem of Wish**

The Titans entered the nightclub, amazed by all the scenery. Inside, the place looked like a castle. At one time, the place may have had two floors, but now a section in the middle of the second floor had been taken down. It now was only a long walkway for people to go hang out and chat, or watch the dance floor in the middle of the club. The railing was designed to resemble a medieval courtyard; stone was lined against the walls to look like castle walls. Flags with unknown designs hung on the rims on the railings. There were four huge pillars standing erect on the four corners of the club. Each one had a figure of someone craved into the pillars.

All four figures had their arms outstretched, looking down at the dance floor. Raven was marveled by their workmanship as she studied them with great interest. They reminded her of the statues back in the temples on Azarath. The four figures were robed with hoods over their heads, concealing their eyes. The figures had wings on their backs, all spread out, the wing tips touched all the way up to the roof. She then noticed the ceiling was painted like the night sky. Black, merging with shades of purple and red, the moon in the night sky was blood red. Whoever painted it made it look so realistic; it almost appeared as if the roof wasn't really there. Like someone had removed the ceiling and you were looking at a real night sky. She was so taken back by the beautiful artwork.

"It's lovely..." whispered Raven in awe, unconsciously squeezing Robin's hand.

Robin, who was also taken with the ceiling, looked down at their joint hands. A odd sense of comfort washed over him, expressing itself in a form of a tender smile on his lips.

...Which was quickly wiped away when a pair of strong arms wrapped around his other arm.

"Okay, this place is nice, but can we go back to the tower?" pleaded Starfire loudly so she could be heard over the roaring music, eyeing everything with caution, as she pulled on his arm, trying to pull back through the doors...

"Sorry, Starfire. We're committed," stated Robin firmly, who was once again surprised by his newfound strength. He actually was able to hold his ground with the girl instead of becoming her rag doll to yank around. "Besides, I don't think Sin would take it well if we showed up and just left the moment we got here."

Raven yanked her hand away from his, hiding it quickly into the depths of her cloak where no one could see her rubbing it softly.

Robin instantly missed the contact but he didn't say anything as he wasn't sure what to really say about it. It made him calm and gave him an easier time with dealing with all these new sensations running through him. It probably was because Raven was using her abilities to control his growing vampiric nature, for which he was grateful for. He had no idea what he would be like if he didn't have her to help him control himself...he really didn't want to think about it.

Starfire pouted and tried once more to change their mind. "If we lose time here we won't be able to figure out how to handle your condition properly, Robin."

Raven was the first to flinch away from Robin thanks to her psychic senses, the others all backed off unconsciously from him when they sense the feel of danger emit from their leader.

"I won't repeat myself again, Star," stated Robin darkly. "And referring to my state like you have isn't helping my mood at all..."

Starfire gulped and slowly nodded, then the sense of danger quickly left Robin, who looked a bit shaken by what he was just able to do. "Wow...I don't know I did that...but Batman would die if he could do something like that!"

"No kidding, man. You almost made me have an accident," said Cyborg, looking at himself to make sure he really didn't have one. "Man would that have been awkward..."

The joke quickly broke the silent uneasiness amongst the team, leaving them all laughing. Cyborg smiled sheepishly, rubbing his bald head before smiling more confidentially and jerking his thumb at the dance floor.

"Come on, ya'll! Let's just cut loose and forget these problems for a while. Let's party!" shouted Cyborg.

"Hell yeah!" agreed Argent, who quickly grabbed Raven's arm and started pulling her away from the group. "Come on, Rae! I've been dying to get in here, let's go exploring!"

"S-Sure," replied Raven, trying to regain her balance while Argent dragged her off.

When she looked back, she saw Robin looking at her with a confused expression. It was as if he wanted to follow her, but stay with Starfire and try and keep her calm. He soon was lost to her sight as Argent dragged her into the crowd of people. She almost thought to ask Argent to let go of her so she could go make sure he was all right, but when she gazed at her secret lover's happy expression, she didn't have the heart to leave her and ruin her time. Besides, Robin probably just needed her to stay by for her aid to keep his dark instincts at bay, not trusting himself fully yet. He'd have to learn at some point to deal with them by himself...now was just as good as any. And he had Starfire for real emotional support, why would should he start leaning to her for it?

She pushed those random thoughts aside and tried her best to forget everything and enjoy her time, which in itself was going to be a challenge. She wasn't a 'fun' person as all her friends can attest for, save for Argent who seemed to see the side of her that she never thought she had. Whatever she saw, she knew just how to bring it out of her and let Raven feel...normal for a change. Argent had done so much for her and she loved her for making her feel like someone special, someone that thought about her in that way...unlike.

She shook her head, stopping herself from letting her mind once more wander down that painful path. She had Argent and that was really all she could have asked for, wasn't it? She had wished for someone special to treat her as good as Argent has, make her feel loved and be there when she needed comfort. The kind of things any living person would want when they had someone...then why did she still constantly linger with the false hope of ever being with...

_'Stop thinking about him. He has Starfire. He choose the girl he wanted to be with and it was decided on that night when we first became Teen Titans...I never had a chance from the start.'_ thought Raven bitterly, as her face grimaced, still letting Argent drag anywhere that tickled her fancy.

They first went upstairs to check out the floor, seeing there were more lounge tables and booths for people. At the far back they found small circular platforms that resembled miniature turrets, which people were up on dancing. Argent gingerly hopped onto one that wasn't being used and pulled Raven up on it with her. She began to dance slowly up against the empath, but keeping it as friendly as she could. Had they been here by themselves, the dance would have been a bit more provocative and subjective for two girls. From her high view on the platform as they danced, Raven could see almost the entire dance floor below. She quickly spotted the rest of the team having the time of their lives, save for Robin and Starfire, she couldn't find them in the crowd. This made her worry for some reason.

She stopped dancing with Argent. "Sorry, Argent...I-I think I need to make sure Robin is fine."

There was a small frown on the plasma-user's face, but it quickly disappeared. "Sure, Raven. Let's go see if he's doing okay."

Raven placed her hand on hers and squeezed it in affection. "Thank you...I know I'm probably being stupid again."

"Don't," said Argent sharply. "There is nothing stupid about caring for one of your friends. After all, he just went through hell and back, the least we can do is make sure everything is all right."

To her delight, Raven gave her a real smile. Not one of her attempts at one but a genuine one that made her soft, cool eyes sparkle. Just seeing that made Argent happy and gladly started looking for Robin. She understood just what the Boy Wonder meant to Raven, as they kept no secrets toward each other. Hell, she admitted she had a little crush on him, but who wouldn't? He was the ideal guy any girl would want to have. But to Raven, he was much more. He was her savior, her anchor when she had fallen into disappear when her demonic father turned earth into his personal hellish realm. He had more affect on her than he realized and she was disappointed in him for not being about to see the obvious, being the detective that he was. It just proved that even the best sometimes never see what lays under their nose when it really matters.

They went back down and made their way to the bar, as they figured the couple might be having a drink together. Unlike the rest of the place that looked to be modeled after a medieval courtyard, the bar was modeled like a cemetery. The bar-counter was grey-stoned with imitated skulls crafted around the edge of it. The bar-stools themselves looked like tombstones with a wide enough top for anyone to sit comfortably on. The wall behind the bar was stacked with all kinds of alcohol, resting on shelves that reminded anyone of cemetery gates with green ivy hanging on the edge of the shelves.

"Dang, no sign of the couple...where the hell did they go?" grumbled Argent, looking around the club and started walking off.

Raven lingered at the bar, wondering if Robin would actually appreciate her seeking him out to see if he was fine. She was really starting to feel silly and she hated silly...

"What's your poison, ma'am?" a thick British accent said loudly.

Startled, she jerked and whipped around to see a pale, average height man with black hair with a streak of white in it. His eyes had black rims and was dressed in a old style; white dress shirt with a Victorian-styled brownish grey buttoned vest and pants, and fingerless leather gloves. He had both hands on the counter and was leaning over it, looking at her expectedly.

"Oh...I don't really drink," replied Raven.

"You look like you could use one, love," said the bartender.

Raven shook her head.

"Then how about something relaxing? Tea, maybe? Yes, you look like you might have a taste for good-old tea, ma'am," said the man.

"Umm, herbal tea if you have it," said Raven, figuring she could use some right then.

"Ah, my specialty, ma'am!" said the bartender, reaching down under the counter and pulled out a kettle and started heating the water from a small stove hidden under the counter. He pulled out herbs and tea leaves from a drawer and a razor. "Be but a moment."

Raven watched in awe as his hands put the tea leaves and herbs together, and skillfully with the razor, chopped them up and meshed them together, using his fingertips to semi-grind them into one pile. As he did, the kettle whistled and he took it off the burner, quickly turning the stove off, then pulled out a tea strainer, putting the tea mixture in it. Taking a cup out, he poured the hot water over the strainer, letting the hot water pour slowly out of the kettle and into the cup, lightly rotating the tea strainer in a clockwise fashion. Once he poured enough, he pulled out a tea cup and poured the tea back and forth behind cups, ending with the tea cup he just pulled put and placed it before the impressed empath.

"There you go, love. Nice and fresh, as tea should be done," smirked the bartender, motioning with a hand for her to try it.

She took the offered tea and sipped it softly. Immediately her eyes widened and she stared in amazement at the tea, then said, "This is wonderful."

"Told ya," said the bartender, already cleaning the tea strainer and putting the kettle away. "I make a fine cup of tea, if I don't say so myself."

Raven sipped happily. "Mmm, this is just what I needed..."

"Aye, you looked troubled there for bit. Good old tea always soothes away any problems," said the bartender.

Raven nodded in agreement and reached to pull out some money, but was stopped when he raised a hand.

"This one's on me. Not offend I have someone appreciate real tea," replied the bartender.

"Thank you, Mr...?"

"Todd," replied the bartender, smirking somewhat. "...Just Todd."

"Raven..." replied Raven, nodding once.

He smirked once more and then rushed off to attend the other customers calling for drinks. She took a sit and continued to enjoy her tea, making a note to ask Todd what herbs and tea-leaves he used and where he gets them. This was truly the best tea she had ever tasted and it did indeed soothe her and her worries. She sat there at the counter for a while, listening to the music and try relaxing for the first time since last night. Too many things had transpired, even for what they were used to, and she was worried about the outcome of the team. The first thing would be what would everyone think when the leader of the Titans no longer came out during daytime hours, and what would the villains try when they found out that he couldn't, which she had no doubt some of them would quickly figure out soon, such as Slade. He seemed to be aware of what happened and that just made things all the more problematic for them. Also, how will Robin handle his situation? She knew there was no way around him not needing blood, even if they tried to come up with some substitute for him, it would draw too many questions from people that didn't need to be pulled into this.

Another thing that she pondered on was the teams reaction to Robin's transformation. From what she could tell he was still the Boy Wonder that became their team leader and friend, only difference now was that he had a fangs and dressed in a different manner...and in her opinion for the better compared to what he used to wear. She didn't mind his choice of coloring, as she knew it was his way of honoring his deceased family, but if he wanted to actually intimidate the bad guys...yellow, red, and green just wasn't going to cut it.

And that mask...

She secretly admitted she really liked it. It gave him a feral look about him that made her like the new Robin, more and more.

But then she remembered that Starfire did not like it, not at all.

The odd reluctance that the redhead had for accepting her boyfriend's new nature troubled her greatly. Starfire was one of the most understanding people she had ever met, it was why they were such good friends. But now she was showing signs of denial and right now that would cause the biggest problems in the team. Professionally, it was the worst time for this to happen..but secretly, she was kind of excited to see her pull away from Robin. It made her feel lower than dirt to be happy about her two closest friend's having relationship difficulties, even hoping just a bit for them to pull further apart, but she could not deny that she wanted that to happen. Robin had expressed so many times that she should not short change herself and keep from wishing for things for herself, no matter what they were. He taught her that she should hope for the best and aim for whatever her heart wished. What he had no idea was that her deepest wish was for him to be hers...

That was biggest secret she had kept from him and most of the team. She only trusted Argent because she truly cared for her and wanted to be honest with her feelings about him and her, that might had meant she was shallow, and she never wanted Argent to feel like she was just a substitute for him...then again, she never had expected her to become her lover after her break up with Beast Boy. It just happened, and Argent had understood before they began their relationship that she had cared for the Boy Wonder long before she had ever come into the picture.

She put her own personal wants aside and returned to the real problem, Starfire. And not just Starfire, she also worried about Beast Boy and the odd way he behaved toward her. She had never in her life seen him at so beastly toward her, no matter how much they fought or when he just started giving her the cold shoulder. Did he truly not want anything to do with her, so much now that he would willingly attack her? Sure she acted like a cold bitch toward him, but he was the one that dumped her with nothing of a word as to why he did it. That wasn't like him. He had his hang ups and some really irritating habits, but he made up for them with his charisma and good-hearted personality. It was like he was becoming something else entirely, much like how Robin was now turning into vampire. Only, he wasn't regretting any of his actions. He seemed to not care at all that he was becoming this...whatever he was turning into and just let it keep happening. It truly confused her and made her heart ache whenever she tried to figure out what happened between them. She hated it. She really hated the unknown factor that made him leave her. If it was simply he didn't love her the way he thought he did, she could have understood that and they remain as friends, even if he was still in love with Terra and wanted to get back with her, she would have accepted his choice and let him pursue it...but to just say it was over and from then on treat her like a disease? That made no sense at all.

That break up had nearly broken the team, and had it not been for Robin and Argent, she would have quit the Titans and ran as far away from Beast Boy as she could. Had they not pestered her enough and gotten through the walls she put up, she may have gone into total solitude and never go near a living soul again. Now she was seeing it happen between Robin and Starfire and she feared that this might actually be what destroyed the Titans.

Robin was the leader, no questions asked. If he wasn't around to lead them, they would quickly fall. Starfire was the passion of the team, the one that kept their spirits going when they were sad or feeling low. She always found a way to lift their moods up and get them to pull through whatever was pulling them down. If both of them split apart as she and Beast Boy did, it would indeed spell the end of the Titans.

She could not allow that to happen. They were a team and family. They had gone through so much to be split apart now because of transformation the likes of which none of them thought could have happened. After all, they had easily accepted Starfire's odd transformation when she had sprouted horns out of her neck and forehead, and even grew hairy feet. What was so different about Robin growing fangs...a red eye...and appealing pale skin.

_'Stop it! You're trying to figure out how to keep them together, not let your own wants get in the way!'_ screamed Raven mentally to herself, rubbing her temple. _'If I don't figure out how to get Starfire to understand that Robin is gonna stay the way he is, then all hope for the team is gone...'_ She sighed to herself and took another sip from her tea. _'...Then why am I still hoping that they'll break up? Azar, I've become a selfish bitch..._'

"Oh, I wouldn't think you're acting like a selfish bitch."

Raven let out a surprised 'eep' and turned around on her seat to find Sin standing right behind her, grinning down at her. She started to glare at him but then took note that he had changed his clothes. He wasn't wearing his jacket anymore and was wearing a red silk shirt with the top half buttons undone. Everything else was the same, though. Even those strange belts that he seemed to like wearing.

"Don't read my mind," warned Raven icily.

Sin shrugged and took a seat in the stool next to hers. "Couldn't stop myself, you were so deep in thought, you hadn't realized that you were practically shouting them out for anyone could can _listen_ to them to hear."

Raven groaned and put her face in her palm, sighing deeply. "Was I really that unaware?"

"Don't worry, I think I was the only one to have picked up on them, but I should warn you that there are people in here with the same talent," cautioned Sin. "I don't just have humans here after all. There are other's like me here as well as other kinds of wicked things."

"...Don't tell me. You have werewolves here, too?" groaned Raven.

"A few but they like to go out into the woods and howl at the moon more than come to social gatherings like this," answered Sin plainly. "But there are some other shape-shifters here." He pointed at a teenage girl with brown hair and freckles on her face. "That girl for one is a werefox."

"A werefox?" said Raven in astonishment. "...I didn't think there were such things."

"Oh, there are and more. Hollywood liked to depict werewolves as the only shape-shifter in this world. Sadly, they don't have a single clue!" replied Sin, chuckling to himself. "There are many kinds of shape-shifters, each with their unique form and abilities...but this is just between us." He winked at her slyly.

Raven rolled her eyes and finished what was left of her tea.

"Ah, I see you've tried some of Todd's tea," commented Sin, taking the cup from her politely and setting it back behind the counter. "How does it compare to what you're used to?"

"I admit, it's the best tea I've ever tried," complimented Raven.

"I've always thought so," replied Sin, nodding in approval, eyeing her for a moment. "...How are your cravings?"

Her eyes shot so wide they looked about ready to fly out of her head.

"Don't be so surprised, my dear, but you should understand that even for a human with powers...you healed yourself just a bit too quickly when you disappeared with your lover," he said quietly as he leaned closer to her to hear him. "And yes, I knew exactly what you two did."

"H-How?" whimpered Raven, staring at the vampire in fear. She couldn't allow her secret to get out, she couldn't let the others know about her dark urges...

He patted her shoulder, his grin softening for a moment from its wicked one. "It's safe with me, dearly. Only you have the right to inform your teammates about it."

"...I hope your word is trustworthy," hissed Raven lowly. "But how did you find out about...my father, and for that matter, about me?"

He leveled his eyes on her as his amused expression vanished, replaced by a serious one. "Because I've been watching all of you for a long time...I even bore witness to when your father turned this world into a version of hell...one I never wish to see again, but the endeavor to keep from turning to stone like everyone else was tasking and I only had enough strength to watch you fight him, otherwise I would have made myself known long ago to you."

"...Why were you watching us?" asked Raven.

"Because I saw something I liked in Robin," answered Sin. "It's all I'll say for now..."

"So...why did you ask about my...problem?" wondered Raven.

"Problem? You call it a problem?" He shook his head amusedly. "I see it will be more than Robin I will have to aid."

"There's nothing to aid...it's a problem I'm working on fixing," muttered Raven, looking away from the vampire.

"Oh, I've heard this one a thousand times...but let's not get off track here," replied Sin. "I asked because I asked you to help me with Robin, correct?"

"Yeah?"

"Then you should have realized that your _problem_ would help you greatly get through to him and aid him in understanding his situation isn't as dire as he may believe," said Sin. "I would make his progress to drinking blood so much easier for me."

"Y-You want me to tell Robin about my own urges?" gawked Raven.

"Not right out, but if he inquires how you know so well...as his friend and bond-partner, you shouldn't keep a secret like that from him when he himself is having a hard time," replied Sin casually, looking at his fingernails before polishing them on his shirt. "...Would only be fair, don't you think?"

"...I'm not sure I could tell him that...where could I begin?" uttered Raven mostly to herself. "...Besides, Starfire will be all he needs for emotional support...I'm not good with emotions."

"Oh, I contraire. You have the one trait that Starfire lacks right now to help him," replied Sin, pointing just near the exit. "You already accept Robin for who and what he is...she hasn't."

Raven followed his finger to where it was pointing and saw the most shocking sight. Starfire had Robin in her arms and trying to fly to the exit, but the Fallen Wonder was putting up a bit of a fight by trying to push her arms off him, and succeeding.

"...See what I mean?" groaned Sin, rolling his eyes at the scene.

Raven was out of her seat and floating above the crowd over the people before she realized she had taken flight.

"Wow...that girl moves fast," uttered Sin, looking shocked at the flying empath, then his grin broke out widely.

"What are you two doing?" demanded Raven, landing by her two struggling teammates.

"Trying to get Robin to safety from this dangerous place!" said Starfire, looking about the club with fear.

Raven sighed. "And how is it dangerous from what we're used to?"

"Umm, because these people here frighten me," answered Starfire simply.

"You're hopeless," muttered Raven, raising a hand and using her powers to pull the two apart. "Look, I'm not in the mood for this, nor do I think is Robin. So if you wanna leave, then go, but don't force him to, too, because you can't understand these people."

"But...but!" only to clam up when her friend's eyes glowed white. "...Fine, I'm sorry, Robin...but this place, all of this is making me very nervous."

Robin frowned deeply and then turned away from her, walking away. "...No one is forcing you to stay."

"But Robin! You..." she was cut off when Raven waved a hand at her.

"Just stop it, Starfire. You're not helping him like this. Even if we do find a cure for him, he still has to deal with what he is now, so just stop right now," insisted Raven, walking away herself now, feeling too disgusted by her friend's attitude to stay near her. "Just go back to the tower."

Dejected, Starfire stared at her departing friends, wondering why they were acting so cold to her. All she was trying to do was protect her lover from the obvious danger. This environment was too eerie and everyone around her set her nerves on edge, and she feared that more harm would befall Robin and her friends if they stayed here. What's more, they couldn't be encouraging Robin like this, he needed to return to normal as soon as possible; this wasn't in his best interest. But if none of them understood this, then she would have to make sure nothing happened to them, so she decided to stay...as much as she hated to, she would do it for her friends and her lover.

Now set on her goal, she floated up over everyone to search for Robin. "I have to be the one to keep him safe...I can't let anymore happen to him."

Said hero was using his skills to disappear in the crowd of people. He wanted to get away from Starfire for just a little bit to reassert himself. He understood she was just trying to help him, hell, he probably shouldn't be here and working on finding a way to turn back human, but he had to admit he was adjusting quickly. The loud music, the nosy people were helping dull his hypersensitive hearing to where he could tolerate it now. Even the flashing lights were starting to sting his eye less and less. As he thought more about it, the more he began to realize that Sin had intentionally planned for him to come here for this very reason. Back at the tower, every little noise, scent, light was overloading him, but how after being blasted by all the overwhelming surroundings, they were toning down to where he could handle them better.

Smirking to himself, he continued letting himself get lost in the crowd. "Damn vampire...he's clever."

"Too clever."

Robin looked behind him and found Raven standing there. "Sorry, thought you might need some company that doesn't mind all this."

Robin smiled and sighed. "Yeah, I do. Thanks, Raven."

Raven shrugged it off. "You helped me so much, I felt I wouldn't be much of a friend if I didn't try helping you."

"All the same, it's appreciated," replied Robin. "...So, are you having a good time?"

"I admit, the mood of the place is to my liking..." admitted Raven, looking up at the ceiling and the statues.

Robin looked up as well, resting one hand on his hip. "I like it, too..."

Raven fidgeted where she stood as she discretely dropped her eyes down from the ceiling to him. These were one of the few rare moments when the two were alone, and she hoped this one would last for a while before...

"Robin!"

_'Fuck...'_

unaware that was the exact same word that Robin had just thought, they both groaned when Starfire landed between them. Miffed a bit, Raven glared at the back of her friend's head.

"Uh, excuse me?"

Starfire, seemingly unaware of what she did, grasp Robin's hand with both of hers. "Robin, I'm sorry. I know this is a trying time for you and I need to be stronger for you...It's just...so much has happened so quickly and I haven't had time to recover from all that has happened."

Robin sighed and squeezed her hand. "Star, I know you mean well, and you don't have to apologize...but let's try to make the best of this evening, okay?"

"I will do my best!" promised Starfire, giving him her brightest smile. "Come! Let us rejoice this make-up by dancing!" tugging on his hand, she dragged him to the center of the club and pulled him close to her and started dancing.

Raven silently stood there watching her friends just walk off without so much as wave. Feeling dejected...once again, she was thinking of just leaving when a hand rested it if on her shoulder.

"That was truly pathetic," commented Sin, gazing at her with a deadpanned look.

Raven jerked her shoulder away from his hand. "It's none of your business."

Before she could walk away, he wrapped his hand on the top of her head and using her own momentum spun her around to face him. "Everything that deals with Robin is my affair now, even affairs of the heart...and what I just saw was just plain sad."

"What do you know?" grumbled Raven, glaring at the hand he had her by.

"More than you can imagine," grinned Sin evilly. "And I know for a fact...you have the hots for your leader."

Raven started squirming in his hand. "How do you know all this stuff?"

Sin grinned devilishly at her. "One day I might tell you how I do it...but for now, let's see what we can do about that sour eye-sight over there." he let her go and pointed at the dance floor.

Grumbling under her breath, she looked behind her and saw he was once more pointing at her teammates.

"So...they're dancing, what's the big deal?" asked Raven impatiently.

Sin sighed dramatically and pinched the bridge of his nose. "...Obviously, you are an amateur when it comes to when two people are dancing together. " He waved his hand at the dancing couple. "It's plain for anyone to see. They are waltzing like two stiffened, drunks! Just look at them, really look at them."

Groaning, she complied and took her time studying her two teammates, not truly understanding what he was getting on about. She just expected he was trying to annoy her, but as she examined the two she began to see a little bit of what Sin might have been talking about. Starfire was smiling as she usually does, but her hands twitched every so often, and when he pulled on her, wanting to get closer to her, her legs would lock and stop herself from getting pulled. Then she'd start to try and lead, wanting to move him where she was going, causing even more tension between them.

"Now you understand..." spoke Sin once he saw her frown deeply.

"...Yeah," agreed Raven, breaking her glance away from her friends.

"Well?" motioned Sin, waving a frustrated hand at them.

"Well, what?" snapped Raven, giving him a cold glare.

"Aren't you going to go cut in and save that boy from his misery?" jeered back Sin, giving his own cold glare at her, making her flinch some. "He needs rescuing and you're letting him suffer."

Raven averted her face from him, staring down at the bar counter. "...I think Robin would prefer dancing with Starfire...he doesn't need me."

Sin gently took her chin into his hand and pulled her face to look at his. "...That's what you've been telling yourself for a long time, Raven. It is time to listen to your instincts and do what you know needs to be done."

"...But I might be wrong," whispered Raven, showing just a fraction of fear in on her face.

"Then at least you'll know for sure," answered Sin, grinning at her gently. "Now come on, go save your friend and let him feel like he's still important to someone."

Raven focused on her breathing as she glanced back at her friends, trying to force the lump growing quickly in her throat. This was her chance. The moment she had wanted to come to show Robin just how much he meant to her...but her fear kept placing doubt in her mind. "...I...I can't dance that well. And I don't think he'd want to dance with someone like me..."

Sin grinned and took her hand and began pulling her toward the dance floor. "Then it's time we show Robin just what he's been missing out."

"W-What are you gonna do?" said Raven shakily.

"_We're_ gonna dance circle around those two, _ahahahahahaha!_"

* * *

**A/N:** Damn, finally! I got this chapter done. Took longer than I wanted...but there's been hell with switching jobs and becoming an office manager...Gah! Anyways, please tell me what you think and the more reviews I get the quicker I'll be motivated to post next chapter.

And by-the-by...

I wish to set a challenge for all of you. The challenge I wish to put into motion for all of you is see more dark-themed Teen Titans. I leave it up to you to pick whatever dark-theme you wish to illustrate. Only limitation to this is nothing emo, like Twilight. It can be dark but we can do that without making them into teen drama reality TV shows, know what I mean? I even leave the pairings up to you. There's even a prize for the best dark-themed challenge, and doesn't need to be finished. Whoever begins and continues the best dark-themed TT fanfic will win a request from me for any story or alteration to my own work.

I hope to see you and your stories all soon...Till then...


	7. Requiem of Dance

**Disclaimer**: I don't own or claim any rights to Teen Titans. They are the rightful property of Cartoon Network and DC Comics. Rightful, and only claim, is to the plot and the following OCs: Sin. Also, I don't own any rights to the song "Spin me Round" or the version sung by Marilyn Manson.

**A/N:** Once again, WoW is to blame to the delay of my chapters, namely trying to get ready for the new expansion that just recently came out…and trying out the Worgen race. These guys are making me fans of werewolves again, lol. Anyway, I won't waste anymore time as I know you are all excited to read this chapter, so let's move on to it…

* * *

**Requiem of Dance**

She tried to pull her hand out of the crazy vampire's hand as he dragged her to what looked like the center of the dance floor. The fit proved futile as his grip was stronger than Starfire's when she dragged her to the mall.

"I don't want to do this!" protested Raven loudly over the people and the blasting music.

The vampire ignored her and continued on his trek to the middle of the dance floor. As if understanding his motive, the people in the center of the dance floor parted enough to give the two a nice circular space. He pulled the struggling empath right up to him and gripped her hip with his free hand, holding her close to him.

"Getting the one you want: Lessen One!" Sin said, grinning down at her glaring face. "Get him to notice you. We will do this by flaunting what 'assets' are available, and my dear, you are very well-endowed in all departments."

She almost slapped him, but he had a grip on her one hand, and the other was still trying to push his other hand off her hip.

"Now, we will get him to notice these wonderful assets by the most basic, but effective, techniques…we seduce the poor boy till he can't help himself!" Sin stated.

"I don't want to seduce him or anyone!" Raven replied sharply, her cheeks flaming red.

"When you're actually telling me the truth, then I'll believe you," Sin retorted just as sharply. "Now then, let's begin…" He started to move when he immediately stopped. "Oh, this won't do at all!" He turned his head to the DJ working the music and spoke with a booming voice. "_**Hey, DJ…Rip it hot and rip it good!"**_

The DJ looked up from his booth and smiled knowingly, giving the vampire a thumbs-up and started working on changing the music. When he made his selection, he started it up, and the dance floor's lights blazed red and focused in the center of the dance floor, right where Raven and Sin were standing.

"…Please, don't let him be watching…please, please!" Raven murmured to herself over and over again.

"But, my dear, that's exactly what we're trying to do here," Sin countered, roaring with a dark laugh and swinging her around, at the same time, his hand reached up and undid the clamp of her cloak and twirled it off her skillfully as she can to a halt on the opposite side of him. He threw the cloak to the side and as it landed on the ground, the music started up. Techno started slamming the tone out like a electric heartbeat before a guitar roared excitement.

"I just assumed you were a Marilyn Manson fan," Sin snickered, seeing her realization of the song the DJ picked. He pulled her hard against his body and leaned down so his grinning face was by an inch from hers, just before the beginning of the song. his eyes full of dark mirth.

_I…don't want to know you're name_

_But I…want your private number baby_

_All I know is that to me_

_You look like lots of fun_

_Open up your lovin' arms_

_I want some, want some_

He started moving her around him, getting her to move with his fluid turns and running one hand up the small of her back. Raven flushed at the contact and tried to not think about what she was doing and just let her body do as he was moving it, hoping that her friends weren't watching them and that she could get out of this embarrassing situation, fast.

What she hadn't realized was a single red eye had locked on her the moment all the lights had focused on the center of the place.

_I set my sights on you, and no one else will do_

_And I, I, I, I, I…got to have my way now, baby!_

_All I know is that to me_

_You look like lots of fun_

_Open up your lovin' arms_

_Watch out, here I come!_

_You spin me right round, baby right round_

_Like a record, baby, right round round round_

_You spin me right round, baby right round_

_Like a record, baby right round round round_

Raven was surprised that she was starting to loosening up quickly to this. The song and the atmosphere of the club was letting giving away to some of her inhibitions she first had and now let her body almost melt like hot metal with the vampire's unnatural graceful moves, moving her shapely legs and hips swoon around his long ones and spinning around him, leaning against his frame as she did. He turned her and twirled her, letting their legs flow in the same direction, then on the last twirl, he pulled her arms back so her back arched up, knowing just how this position would look to anyone watching them, which as he noticed was almost the entire place. His grin grew wider.

_I don't want to be your friend now baby_

_But I wanna move in a little bit closer_

_All I know is that to me_

_You look like lots of fun_

_Open up your lovin' arms_

_Watch out, here I come_

In the crowd around the two dancing, Robin hadn't realized he had let go of Starfire, who didn't seem all that upset that he wasn't holding onto her anymore. His remaining eye absorbed every move Raven made with the vampire, amazed that she was being this free and loose in a crowd…and so alluring. His body moved before his mind did, heading to the dancing duo, not even hearing Starfire yelp and calling after him.

_You spin me right round, baby right round_

_Like a record, baby, right round round round_

_You spin me right round, baby right round_

_Like a record, baby right round round round_

_All I know is that to me_

_You look like lots of fun_

_Open up your lovin' arms_

_Watch out, here I come_

_You spin me right round, baby right round_

_Like a record, baby, right round round round_

_You spin me right round, baby right round_

_Like a record, baby right round round round_

When the song died down, there was a long pause of silence in the club. No one moved or spoke a word as everyone stared in amazement at the two who had just danced so wondrously, and so captivating to some of the more hot-blooded members in the crowd. Raven herself was just realizing what she had just pulled off and turned around to stare at Sin, who had began to slowly applaud her.

"Marvelous, my dear, simply marvelous," complimented Sin, bowing his head to her. "I haven't had such a good dance partner in a long while."

"I-I really was good?" uttered Raven softly, knowing he could hear her.

Sin stepped up to her, putting his hands on her shoulders and slowly moving her to turn. "Just turn around and see for yourself."

Once she was fully turned around, she came face-to-face with the one man that had been on her mind almost every moment since the entire incident. Robin stood before her, the uncovered portion of his face was stretched out with pure amazement. Shyly, she started to look away but then caught herself halfway, slowly bringing her face back up to his.

"…G-Guess I over did it, hmm?" said Raven softly.

When he remembered to close his mouth, he nodded vigorously to her. "That was great!"

She smiled some, brushing a lock of her long hair back behind her ear. Then suddenly she was sent flying right at Robin by a force from behind. A loud 'oomph' escaped her lips and found her face now lying on Robin's armored chest, feeling his arms had wrapped around her to catch her. She shoot a glare at the culprit that had done the deed, seeing him just smirking at the two.

"What? You two were just standing there, oogling each other," said Sin with amusement. "We're here to party, so dance already!"

"Uh, er…" stuttered Robin and Raven.

Sin sighed in exasperation, letting his head hang, and waved a hand in the DJ's direction. "Maestro?"

The DJ had already popped a new CD in the player when the hand waved, and started up a wordless song, but the music was slow and deep indicating clearly for anyone it was for a slow dance.

"Do I have to tell you what to do now?" said Sin, looking up at the two and tapping his plated foot. When he saw the two just staring back at him with confused expressions, he groaned. _**"DANCE!"**_

The two jumped at his words and wrapped their arms around each other.

"Thank you!" shouted Sin, throwing his arms up in the air, and started walking away. "I need a drink…these kids…Oy!"

The two glared at the retreating vampire and once he had worked his way around the crowd and out of sight did the two remember the fact that they were holding onto each other.

"Umm, so Raven…wanna dance this song?" asked Robin nervously.

Raven could barely nod her head as her stomach was flying wildly with butterflies.

He placed both hands on her shapely hips as he wrapped both of hers around his neck, and the two wordlessly began to move with the music. At first, their movement was stiff and uncertain, but as the music moved along, the two started to unwind and move more comfortably and smiling almost. Their moment was almost ruined when a certain redhead started moving toward them, but before she could utter a word, a silver-skinned hand reached out and grabbed her arm.

"Nuh-uh, Star-baby," abolished Argent, pulling her away from the pair. "You haven't been the most positive person around Robbie tonight. Let him have some fun without feeling bad for existing."

Starfire jerked her arm away from the plasma-wielder. "And what is that supposed to mean? I have always been there for him in any way that I could."

Argent snorted a rude laugh. "You've been anything but helpful since Robbie's been turned into a vampire. I think the two of you need some space for a bit and let him just relax."

"You don't understand how it's really going, do you?" accused Starfire.

"Enlighten me, love," said Argent curtly, narrowing her eyes at the redhead.

"The more time we waste here, the more likely we cannot turn Robin back into his normal self," said Starfire, waving her hand at the dancing pair, who were completely oblivious that they were close and talking about them. "I feel that Sin is doing all this on purpose to keep us from finding his cure."

"Do you now?" snipped Argent, crossing her arms and tapping her cheek in irritation with her teammate. "So…you wanna ruin what little fun he is having and forget everything else and find this 'cure' so he can be normal for you, is that right, love?" she had spoken quickly, eyeing Starfire with a questioning look.

"Yes, for me, I…!" said Starfire before halting as she realized she had fallen into a word trap with Argent.

"So, all that matters is what you want, not Robbie?" accused Argent, frowning heavily at her now.

"That's not what I meant! You're taking this the wrong way!" said Starfire heatedly.

"Oh, I'm sure I understand exactly what you meant, Star. And I have to say, you may be kinder than anyone I've ever meant when it comes to 'normal' people, but when it comes to something strange and weird to you, you can be a pretty stuck up bitch!" said Argent bitterly.

From the bar, Sin and Todd perked their heads up, looking at each other with a deep knowing look.

"…A cat fight is about to happen, isn't it, Todd? Please, tell me, I don't wanna look around, I just don't wanna," moaned Sin, staring at his glass.

Todd looked out into the dance floor, and sighed, wishing he could report better tidings. "Yes, boss…a nasty cat fight is about to break out with that redhead and a silver-skin gal."

"Silver?...I was sure it would be with Raven," said Sin in alarm, turning around sharply on his stool and glared. "Fuck…that redhead is gonna be a pain in my ass. I just know it."

Todd shrugged his shoulders before a serious look passed over his face. "…Should something _amiss_ happen to that redhead, boss?"

Sin glanced at him for a long moment, contemplating the very notion, then shook his head begrudgingly. "No, as much as that would be easy, I fear the repercussions would be un-repairable should it ever be found out that I had a hand in her _disappearance_..."

"Pity…well, good luck dosing the fire then, boss," whistled Todd, smiling at his employer and quickly getting himself busy.

"…Thanks a lot, jerk," grumbled Sin, sighing as he started marching toward the arguing pair. "There just had to be a problem like this tonight, didn't it?"

As he neared the two, he could hear their words getting more heated by the moment and was beginning to actually worry that the two might break into a fight. Only two things made him want to prevent this. One of them was that if these two started fighting, they would most likely use their respective powers and cause damage to his club. The other reason was that it would spoil the night for everyone, especially since things were just starting to look good for his now acclaimed son. He had just arrived beside the two when Starfire's hand suddenly jerked back and started glowing.

"You will take back what you said, Argent!" shouted Starfire angrily, her rage manifesting in her now glowing eyes.

Argent remained calm and rose her chin up in defiance. "I won't cuz' it's true!"

"I know I'm going to regret getting between two angry women…but what's going on here?" sighed Sin.

Starfire whipped around and pointed accusingly at Argent. "She just stated that I did not love my beloved, that I'm more concerned with having him be the way I feel he should be!"

Sin sighed and glance over at Argent, his posture slacking and showing minimal tolerance. "Did you?"

"I did and I won't take my words back. Since all of this started, this twit's been only concerned about making things the way they were before," said Argent sternly, standing straighter.

Sin closed his eyes for a moment and then sighed once more. "Is that all ?"

"What do you mean, is that all?" yelled Starfire, her rage starting to get the better of her, due to all the stress and pint up worry that she has had to endure until now, and with no outlet.

Sin slouched on his right hip, folding his arms just under his chest and very slowly opened his eyes, which were now glowing a dark, angry red.

"Don't test me, princess," said Sin coldly, so much so that the words seemed to actually make her shiver. "I will be frank with you. I don't want you here, I never did and will, but because you mean something to Robin, I have to tolerate your existence. But I will not allow you to continue this behavior while in my place. If you are so fearful of what I and Robin are…then just go back to your tower and continue pretending that things are still they were before." He snarled at her, seeing her flinch back in fear at his long fangs. "But understand this, that world will never come back, it's lost forever…broken and already gone cold. This is the real world you are in now, princess. There is no sugar-coating to it and will only get worse if you keep thinking that way."

Starfire was inwardly fuming. She wanted to prove this creature wrong, that things can go back to way they were, that there was always a light of hope in any dark situation, but then she remembered exactly what sort of creature he was. He never can see any light because it would kill him, he could not grasp anything other than what lay in the shadows, and she pitied him for that state, just as she now pitied the state of her lover…

A cold hand instantly found itself around her neck and was squeezing painfully before it suddenly let go of her and she started grasped for air.

Sin pulled his hand back, sneering at her in disappointment and contempt. "I knew I had you pegged from the start."

"W-What happened?" asked Argent with worry, not understanding why he started attacking Starfire then stopped.

"Feeling pity is like lacing poison on your fingernails," said Sin darkly, fighting to keep his hand from going back at the alien's throat. "All it ever does is slowly kill the one you love every time you touch them."

"I do feel pity…I feel it because you never will have hope, being what you are, and now you're forcing Robin to share that sad fate. I won't allow you to do that to him, I will do everything I can to fix him from what you've done to him!" declared Starfire, rubbing her aching throat.

"Fix me?"

The three turned around to see Robin was now standing beside them with Raven behind him and looking very worried. As she should, the turmoil that was boiling inside of him was nearly choking her sensitive psyche.

"Robin, this has gone on long enough. We must return to the tower and see to your recovery," stated Robin, walking over to him and grabbing his hand. "This place is nothing but dread and darkness…you cannot stay here anymore."

"Fix me?" repeated Robin, staring blankly at Starfire with his only eye, seemingly seeing right past her or at something more.

"Yes, Robin. We must go, now!" stated Starfire more firmly, pulling at his hand to lead him out to the exit.

Yet again, she forgot he wasn't physically weak as he was once before. Her action easily came to a halt when he planted his feet more firmly and yanked his hand out of her grasp.

"I never felt pity for you, Starfire. Not once, even when you were going through your transformation when you were younger. I always believed in you and always saw the person inside you," said Robin sadly, his lips twitching in anger.

"Robin, this isn't the time. You aren't yourself and are experience emotions not your own," responded Starfire simply.

"That's not the point, Star," replied Robin lowly. "I never…!"

Sin stepped in between them, putting a hand over Robin's mouth. "Stop, Robin. You aren't yourself as she said, and you're not used to the feelings toiling around inside you. You need to stop and calm down before you say something you will regret, and believe me, you will regret saying them later on." He turned his head to side, keeping Robin in his sight but his voice addressed Starfire. "Leave now. I will not have your misguided feelings work on my son anymore tonight." His body stiffened and a feeling of danger flowed from his body. _'If I have my say…you won't ever put him through this kind of pain again.'_

"He is not your son," said Starfire lowly, her eyes and fists beginning to glow.

"In all context of what he is and that I was the one that sired him, he is. I have been as respectful as I can be with someone like you, princess…but patience is not a virtue I am known for," snapped Sin, starting to get very angry with this alien woman, and feeling very disappointed in her.

After all the time he had seen her help others with their differences, he thought she would have been the most understanding of all after his son's change…how much he regretted for Robin that he had been proven wrong about her. He knew just how much he loved this woman, the one now treating him like a leper victim, a fearful one at that.

"Once all of us leave than I'll gladly go and never return to this forsaken place," spat Starfire, glaring at everything around her and then throwing all her distrust and aggression at Sin himself. "You are a dangerous being, Sin. And I will not have Robin become such a vile thing, I saved him from another monstrous person who wanted him to follow his way, and I will not let another do so, ever!"

"Ah…I know exactly the situation you are referring to my dear," chuckled Sin but no amusement echoed in it. "He was forced to serve him as his apprentice, this Slade fellow…he made him do things he knew Robin would object to, even fight the friends he had made unknowing hostages." His tone began to darken and the space they occupied was beginning to feel very cold, so much so, that the people around them had begun to move away from the chill the air that was now crawling out from the group, or more precisely, from the vampire. "But there is one sufficient difference between that monster and myself, princess. One major factor that makes this situation far different from what Slade had forced upon him."

"And what would that be?" demanded Starfire, not believing him for a minute.

To her shock, and almost everyone who had been watching the whole scene…Sin dropped to one knee before Robin, bowing his head and extended his arms toward the exit of the club.

"I give him total and absolute freedom to do as he chooses. If he wishes to leave on his own accord, then he can do so," said Sin, keeping his head bowing, his long flowing black hair pool around his face and hiding it from all to see. "He is not my slave, even in all vampiric traditions, he is my servant, but he is also my son and as any caring father would do, would give him the right to make his own decisions as to what he wishes to do. It is all that I can do after I forced him to turn from the light and become one with the darkness."

From the bar, Todd stared in total disbelief. "…In all my years…never have I seen the vampire Sin…bow to anyone." He glared at the redhead, then turned to Robin. "Boy...you have no idea just how much pride my boss is holding back for you. No one has ever earned this form of respect from him, not even from the oldest of old vampires." He came around from the bar and, he too, bowed down before Robin in the same manner as Sin.

Soon everyone in the place fell to one knee before them as the music stopped, the lights all halted, and a deafening silence now ruled the once lively club.

"…Sin, you…you don't have to do this for me," said Robin after he got over the situation. "I'm nobody that special to have you bow to me."

Sin remained in his place. "You are, my boy…and only you because you are now my son, and only to my blood will I show this form of respect, no other."

Starfire was beginning to feel ashamed, somewhat.

"Please…let us go home, Robin," she pleaded to her lover.

Robin did not reply to her. He found he could only stare at the bowing vampire, who had appointed himself his new father figure and mentor. Everything he may have known about vampires and their ways was forgotten the moment this powerful man got down on his knee for him. He could sense its deeper meaning, this otherworldly sense he now had whispered over his sensitive ears that his was truly serene, and from his missing eye, he could feel it itching and ache some before his vision expanded, In that moment ghostly imagines appeared over the kneeling vampire. One looked like the old man he had encountered back in Limbo, smirking at him and arms folded in his ragged sleeves. The other…looked feminine in shape but he could not make her entirely out, but he could 'feel' she was smiling down at Sin and at him. The female figure placed a hand on Sin's back, and as she did, Sin jerked his head up slightly, looking to have felt the tender touch the woman gave him. Before he started to turn his head to see who had touched him, the woman and the old man vanished from Robin's site along with half his vision, and a feeling of gratitude and content waved through Robin. Somehow that person had told him to trust this vampire, that he was safe with this man.

He was still all so inexperienced with this supernatural feeling. So much had changed in him and around him, but the feeling in his chest, that feeling of rightness told him what he needed the most to know. And the one thing his adopted father had taught him was always trust your inner instincts, they were the only thing that will never lie to you.

He walked over to Sin, who was looking slightly startled, moving his head slightly left and right, looking for the presence he had just felt touch him. Robin kneeled down on both knees and placed his hands on Sin's shoulders.

"I don't know what I'm getting myself into. Being a vampire was something I never ever expected to become…but until I feel that something is going wrong, I'm willing to give this a try," said Robin with as much serenity as he ever sounded in his entire life, and now his unlife.

"Robin! You cannot be serious about this!" shouted a very upset Starfire.

Robin turned his head, to glance over his shoulder, but the side of his face that he choice was his masked side. "Go home, Starfire…"

"…W-What?" stuttered Starfire, not believing her ears.

"I said, go home…neither of us are acting like ourselves, and I don't trust myself right now to say the right things…or act the right way. But I need to remain here, with this vampire, to understand things better," said Robin, his voice devoid of any emotion. "And if you cannot understand that…then I don't know who you are."

Her mouth began to gap, quivering with no sound as she tried to speak, yet no word came to her aid. Todd stood up and took the redhead by the arm.

"Come on, missy. You've overstayed your welcome here."

She started to resist him, then felt another hand, a warm hand.

"I'll take you home, Star…I'm not feeling very welcomed here, either," said Beast Boy, glancing briefly at Raven, who averted her face from him. "I think it's for the best tonight..."

Wordlessly, she gave up and let the changeling lead her out of the club and when the doors slammed shut behind them, there was never a louder sound ever than before when they closed.

Sin and everyone in the club got back to their feet, the crowded people all now staring at Robin with a look of awe and curiosity now. As for Robin, he could not figure out why they were giving him that look, or how to get them to stop.

Sin quickly broke the awkward moment for his son when he drew his attention to the DJ. "Get that music playing again! This isn't your break time!"

Startled by the sudden shout, the DJ quickly started up the music again and the flashing lights all returned to moving around the club. Soon everyone had returned to their previous business, dancing and laughing carefree. Around that time, the rest of the Titans moved in to join the little group out in the dance floor.

"Rob, you sure about this?" asked Cyborg critically.

"I'd be dead two times over if it weren't for this guy, it would be wrong of me if I didn't give him my trust," said Robin. He then drew them away from the bar, finding a semi-peaceful corner for them all to discuss. The few occupants that had been close by moved away to give the team some space, two of them nodded to Robin respectively.

When they seemed to have enough privacy, Robin addressed the remaining team. "Like I said just a while ago…I'm going to see where this leads me, I'm not going to deny that there are too many risks and factors, but we don't know anything about vampirism, and what I _saw_ when I was changing was nothing I can hope to describe with words gives me any hopes that I can simply be cured, at least not easily."

"Can you try and tell us what you saw?" asked Cyborg, now curious about what Robin had experienced during his change, and from the looks of everyone, they too looked interested.

"…Blood," answered Robin simply. "I saw nothing by blood all around me…and faces, ghostly faces in that blood…" He then explained what he could that transpired when he was that dark place, when he mentioned the old man, Sin halted him.

"…He talked to you?" said Sin, his grin long gone and replaced with a gapping mouth. "The old one actually talked to you directly?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" wondered Robin.

"He _never_ talks to anyone save for one thing, one reason," said Sin, his pale skin actually turning a shade paler. "When he bind the change…what else happened, Robin, tell me, this is very important."

"A-After I was surrounded in blood, I couldn't hear everything he said…b-but I changed…I turned into something different, and I was scared…then I think he called me a Darkborn," said Robin, fighting of the memory of that moment when he was being covered in that eerie blood.

To their amazement, Sin's skin paled even more, so much that even his lips turned blue, giving him a more corpse-like appearance. "He…called you a Darkborn?"

"Yeah, isn't that same title for a fledgling?" said Robin, not understand why Sin looked so worked up.

"Robin, there are many things that you don't understand yet about vampires…but the title of Darkborn is anything but a simple fledgling," said Sin seriously, gripping the hero's shoulder. "Darkborn are vampires…with remarkable potential. That's all I can say for now." He smiled widely and all the mirth he had shown before shined brightly in his red eyes. "Oh, this is going to be so exciting!"

"…What?" said the entire group.

* * *

A/N: Took me long enough, right? LOL! At first I was going to take this chapter the same way as I did with the original version of this chapter…but it didn't fit with what I have planned for this re-vamp. As you know the more reviews I get the faster I'm liable to get the next chapter out, so with that said…

Till then…


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